Kia Ora Cora

In this lightly populated rural pocket of New Zealand, inland from Christchurch, the need to test the craft away from prying eyes while in its embryonic stages paid off for Zephyr Airworks.

Californian start-up tech company Kitty Hawk Corporation registered Zephyr Airworks as its New Zealand arm in December 2016 so it could secretly flight-test this self-piloted electric air taxi after extensive research and development at its US Mountain View headquarters over an eight-year period. The first air taxi, named Cora, arrived from the United States last October.

By March tech media had a whiff of something happening Down Under. It was time to spill the beans.

The egg-shaped, two-seater prototype, capped by a glass roof, lifts vertically like a helicopter on the thrust of 12 independently operated lift fans (one on each side of six struts spaced evenly under each of its 11 metre wings). Once airborne it switches to plane mode using a single push propeller at its rear, eliminating the need for a runway.

Cora flies on electricity-charged batteries, has self-piloting software and in its present incarnation, can fly around 100 kilometres on a full charge at a speed of 180 kilometres per hour at a height of between 152 and 914 metres.

Its three independent flight computers each calculate its location. If one of them has an issue the other two kick in to navigate reliably. Cora also has a parachute if it needs to land without fans.

Both the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) have given Cora an experimental airworthiness certificate for unmanned research and development testing at a private aerodrome, but its focus now is on further ground-breaking certification from the NZ CAA, an ambitious task as there is no precedent for such a vehicle anywhere else in the world.

If Kitty Hawk’s plans remain on track these small flying cars could be buzzing over New Zealand between three and six years from now offering a Uber style air taxi. New Zealand has been officially designated by Kitty Hawk as the global launch pad with the government’sendorsement.

After New Zealand Cora will take on the world, pioneering a path of aviation change as it goes. But it is not the only company moving in the direction of air taxis. There are an estimated 30-50 projects in tow around the world (see below).

For now, Zephyr Airworks chief executive, Fred Reid will not put a definitive timeframe around a date Cora will make public flights.
Not only will there be many modifications and refinements and hundreds of hours of testing for Cora between now and its public debut, but avionic certifications and regulations need to be turned on their ear to accommodate this new flying mode, including the management of aerial highways – or flyways – to ensure safe and orderly air travel.

“We have a lot of work to do and we are working constructively with regulatory authorities. We are looking forward to being able to share our product with the New Zealand public when the time is right,” Reid told media after the project went public on March 12.

“It’s about people and mobility; it’s about the time you could save soaring over traffic – the friends you could visit. It’s about giving everyone a fast and easy way to get around the planet that doesn’t come at the expense of the planet.”

Reid said Cora vehicles would not be sold individually, but as a service with a fleet, similar to an airline or a rideshare. An app was also being developed for people to hail the Cora air taxi.

Kitty Hawk’s website does reveal, however, that it is developing a flying machine for individuals under the name of ‘Flyer’, with interested parties being asked to seek more information.

Cora players

Although he has never officially confirmed he is the backer, Larry Page, co-founder and chief executive of Google parent, Alphabet has been widely reported as funding the project in a private capacity.

And while no figures have officially been released about the cost of development, US$100 million has been touted by tech expert as a realistic expectation for getting Cora – literally – off the ground.

Kitty Hawk’s chief executive entrepreneur and scientist, Sebastian Thrun founded X (previously Google X) where he drove the development of the self-driving car and Google Glass. He is also president of Udacity, a movement aimed at democratising education.

Fred Reid, aviation stalwart with 30 years experience in the industry, has worked as chief executive of Virgin America, president of Delta Air Lines and president of Lufthansa Airlines where he was a key player in the creation of the Star Alliance.

Why New Zealand?

Kitty Hawk said on its website that to take the next step to bring Cora out of R&D to the commercial market it needed to find a country as “bold and dynamic as America had been in early 20th century when the Wright Brothers took flight and the country was a hotbed of invention and discovery”.

It also needed to have a world-class reputation in certification and regulation and a government and society with an eye to the horizon. After two years of pitching privately it chose New Zealand.

The company said it realised quickly that New Zealand had everything it needed, from design to New Zealand certification plus sound intellectual property legislation and receptivity to new ideas.

Kitty Hawk also references Richard Pearse, the New Zealand farmer and inventor who pioneered flight in New Zealand – ostensibly preceding the Wright brothers.

“New Zealand is recognised for its safety-focused regulatory environment and a strong history of excellence in airspace management,” Reid said.

“These qualities are vital in giving people confidence that we are serious about making Cora the best air taxi on the market.”
It was not until the Kitty Hawk team arrived in New Zealand that it found 80 per cent of the country was powered by renewable energy and was loooking to harness benefits of the electric mobility revolution.

Reid said when the Californian team pitched its plan it had no idea what to expect.

“They could have laughed us out of the room. We were pitching something that sounded like science fiction,” he said.

‘We were pitching something that sounded like science fiction.’ Fred Reid

Under a non-disclosure agreement it talked with the New Zealand government and other agencies and local bodies for 18 months about a supportive partnership for the project.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told The New York Times the decision to work with Kitty Hawk was “about sending the message to the world that our doors are open for people with great ideas who want to turn them into reality.”

“We’ve got an ambitious target in New Zealand of being net carbon zero by 2050 and exciting projects like this are part of how we make that happen,” she said.

Reid has been setting up graduate programs at New Zealand universities to ensure Zephyr Airworks can find graduates with IT, engineering and manufacturing skills to work on Cora.

The company presently has jobs listed in New Zealand for pilots, flight test engineers and aircraft technicians. It employs a wide range of people from those with skills in avionics to composites, flight controls, and car manufacturing and battery technology.

Dr Peter Crabtree, general manager for science, innovation and international projects at New Zealand’s Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, said the country knew it couldn’t keep using the “same old approaches” to meet future challenges.

We saw Cora’s potential as a sustainable, efficient and transformative technology that can enrich people’s lives, not only in New Zealand, but ultimately the whole world.”

CAA breaks boundaries

The NZ CAA’s deputy director of aviation, Steve Moore said the authority was working to define a bespoke set of certification requirements using a civil aviation rule in effect since 2015 that provided a legal framework for the operation of unmanned aerial vehicles.

Using a flexible approach to the application of the risk-based rule CAR Part 102 (that defines this set of certification requirements) is understood by CAA to be unique within the global aviation environment.

“The nature of Zephyr Airworks’ Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) design and their operational goals means that the standard set of requirements applicable to aeroplanes or helicopters cannot be applied in the normal manner,” said Moore.

“A bespoke approach needs to be taken to ensure that the certification requirements adequately capture the associated aviation risks and are also tailored to reflect the specific nature of their design.”

The CAA said it was also aware of the need to ensure that its broader suite of regulations remained contemporary as the use of RPAS’s proliferated thorugh the country’s aviation system.

There were significant regulatory challenges that needed to be worked through around how a service whould share the airspace with other aircraft and how the vehicle would work when out of sight from operators on the ground, for instance.

Graeme Sumner, chief executive of air traffic management provider Airways New Zealand, said New Zealand’s regulatory environment and relatively uncongested airspace made the country an attractive option for new operators.

Airways has begun piloting future technologies to support the arrival of autonomous flying vehicles in New Zealand airspace such as Cora.
It said in a statement that development of a nationwide unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) traffic management system would enable drone activity across New Zealand airspace through a safe integration into the national air traffic network.

“We are looking for ways to safely support more complex operations and facilitate new entrants, including the Zephyr Airworks’ autonomous aircraft, into our skies.”

Airways has been putting an AirMap drone traffic management platform in Canterbury and Queenstown through trials that allow drone pilots to plan flights, seek authorisations and get information about the areas they’re operating in.

The next phase is tracking tools that enable accurate monitoring of UAVs once they are beyond the pilot’s line of site and detect and avoidance capabilities to keep them safely separated from other aircraft.

Airways will also test New Zealand’s existing telecommunications network for its ability to track the likes of Cora and UAVs in uncontrolled airspace to “enable better telemetry for drone pilots.

“Our first priority is ensuring the safety of our skies and we’re thrilled to be at the forefront of this ground breaking trial with Zephyr Airworks,” Sumner said.

‘We’re thrilled to be at the forefront of this ground- breaking trial.’ Graeme Sumner

Over the past four years Airworks had also developed an advanced launch services program, enabling more than 120 stratospheric balloon launches for NASA and Google, and has facilitated RocketLab’s ambitious rocket launch program, he said.

Christchurch role

Joanna Norris, chief executive of ChristchurchNZ , a body representing the interests of tourism, economic development, growth, international eduction and events in the city, said Zephyr Airworks came to Christchurch because of the ease of doing business there, the country’s safety-focused regulatory environment, a culture of ingenuity and vision for clean technologies and future transport alternatives.
She said Christchurch was at the forefront of future transportation. In addition to the Zephyr self-piloted air taxi there other projects underway included autonomous vehicle production manufacture in Christchurch, research trials by Ohmio Technologies with an electric Hop shuttle, described as the world’s first self-driving and scalable public transport solution – supported by Christchurch International Airport, and YooGo, the country’s first fully battery powered electric car sharing service car sharing launched in February 2018 with a pool of 100 electric vehicles.

“Christchurch is committed to becoming carbon neutral and we are embracing future technologies in the areas of future transport, future foods, Antarctica and space technology, technical adventure clothing, social enterprise – we are open for business and making strong strides in these areas,” Norris said.

A race to the future

For Kitty Hawk the journey to market could turn out to be a race with many competitors vying for their share of the same market, including the major aircraft manufacturers Boeing and Airbus. Uber is also working towards an air taxi service in Los Angeles, Dallas and Dubai and German drone company Volocopter is among many that is testing unmanned air taxis in Dubai.

Soon it won’t just be the skies over Canterbury that are home to flying taxis.