Inaugural Airspeeder race takes place in South Australia

Race cars come in all shapes and sizes: big-bodied stock cars on ovals, formula cars maneuvring through circuits, off-road vehicles navigating deserts and jungles, rally cars on ice, the list goes on.

But what about going forward horizontally… and vertically?

Flying cars is a running joke when thinking about the future, but Airspeeder intends to do just that. This past week, Airspeeder’s EXA Series project hosted its inaugural race on a one-kilometre “sky circuit” in South Australia. At the moment, the vehicles are more like drones as they are remotely piloted, but the series intends to have actual crews and drivers by 2024.

Zephatiali Walsh went on to win after flying his Airspeeder underneath leader Fabio Tischler in turn one.

“As pilots, we’ve been developing this sport behind the scenes over hundreds of hours of simulator, engineering and testing work and through this process we have been united as a group of pilots in one common goal: to deliver this historic first race,” said Walsh. “As soon as the lights turned green, we became racers competing for a place in the history of this sport and flying cars as the coming transportation revolution.

“I couldn’t be prouder to know that forever more I’ll be the first winner of an electric flying car race and I look forward to retaining my crown as we go racing around the world in the coming months.”

The nascent project operates using 5G networks and augmented reality tracking. The electric car is 4.1 meters in length and resembles a quadcopter. Its motor is 320 kW, akin to an Audi SQ7 SUV, and weights 130 kg without a pilot.

Many figures have signed on to support Airspeeder including aerospace companies Airbus and Boeing, McLaren, among others. Formula One and Formula E alumnus Bruno Senna is the series’ global ambassador and colour commentator.