US Military Plans to Jumpstart Commercial Use of Flying Cars

US Military Plans to Jumpstart Commercial Use of Flying Cars

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The United States Air Force has recently issued a request for a “flying car” that could transport soldiers and supplies to the battlefield, possibly replacing the service’s V-22 Osprey one day.

The United States Military’s effort to develop and manufacture a flying car has come a long way. Known as the Agility Prime program, military officials have been hoping to leverage the work done by the commercial market on autonomous flying vehicles in order to develop a flying vehicle with military applications.

“Now is the perfect time to make Jetson’s cars real,” said Will Roper, the United States Air Force acquisition head. “[Agility Prime] has come a long way… it’s a fun program.”

The Air Force’s main goal is not necessarily developing a new transport vehicle, instead the Air Force wants to offer commercial companies an opportunity to test their prototype aircraft on military ranges and at the same time demonstrate the prototype’s possible military applications.

One major benefit of a military range for testing prototypes is that military ranges require much less authorization to fly experimental aircraft, thus cutting much of the time consuming bureaucracy to obtain flight approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The Agility Prime program hopes to influence the emerging eVTOL (electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing) flying cars market to take military applications into account during development. The program is currently looking at the commercial market for eVTOL vehicles that consider the Air Force as a potential influencer of the flying manned vehicles industry.

The Agility Prime program will be based on competition, where firms applying will need to meet several requirements, such as minimum flight duration, payload carrying capability, and more. Firms that meet the requirements will advance in the competition for an Air Force safety certification, according to Uasvision.com.

The winner of the challenge will be in a position to receive a procurement contract from the United States Air Force. By making an autonomous flying vehicle operational for safe military use, commercial companies and domestic authorities will be able to witness that such vehicles are capable of flying safely, thus helping push forward the technology for commercial use.