To travel abroad, you no longer have to buy an expensive plane ticket. In fact, you can fly there yourself. At least, if you buy this impressive plane.
The plane has one advantage: you don’t need a pilot’s license to fly it. That means you don’t have to be a pilot to get behind the wheel.
But there is one small caveat. For the plane, you have to pay quite a bit of money. And I really mean a lot.
You don’t need a pilot’s license for this plane
Pivotal is a California-based company that specializes in light aircraft. Their new plane was named Helix and is an improved version of its predecessor, the BlackFly. The plane is pretty unique. In fact, you don’t need a pilot’s license to use it.
Don’t rejoice too soon. You do have to take a short flight training course for Helix, but you don’t need an official license. The small flying machine only allows you to fly in quiet areas and you are not allowed to enter airports. It’s actually an ideal vehicle for people who like to fly but don’t want to become pilots.
The flying machine (Image: Pivotal)
Big investment
Americans have been able to order their own aircraft since this week. It’s a hefty investment, though. The entry price is about 150,000 euros and can go up to 260,000 euros if you also want a premium cockpit and three chargers on board.
And that’s not all. Buyers also have to pay 250 euros in application fees and 50,000 euros in mandatory flight training. Here in the Netherlands, the Helix is not available. Considering the huge prices, maybe that’s just as well.
Robots behind the wheel?
Professional pilots may no longer need a pilot’s license either. After all, they will be replaced by humanoids in the future. Korean engineers have developed a human robot that can reportedly fly airplanes.
It can get behind the wheel after reading the manual just once. How that all works, we explain to you in detail in the article below: