Two companies are vying to have the world’s first flying motorbike, but they are taking very different approaches. The Razor Flying Motorbike was on Jetpack Aviation’s to-do list for several years, but the California firm announced recently that it had put a pause on the program to concentrate on large, fast military drones.
At the same time, UDX has been developing its Airwolf. The Czech team is currently testing a scale prototype at Technology Readiness Level 5 of 9 which, in NASA parlance, means “component validation in the relevant environment.” For the rest of us, that means the two-seat eVTOL still has years of development ahead, but the company is moving toward a full-scale, working prototype.
“Our mission is to make flight accessible to everybody,” CEO and cofounder Jiri Madeja tells Robb Report, noting that interested customers can sign up for a test flight, though no dates have been announced yet.
The two-person air bike will be capable of a 140-mph top speed.
UDX
The craft will have a carbon-fiber chassis design, fully electric powertrain, and four 3-D-printed Electric Ducted Fans (EDFs) from Italian component manufacturer VasyFan. The Airwolf looks very different than the Razor, which resembles a conventional motorcycle with small jet packs on all four corners. The Airwolf, by contrast, looks like a hybrid eVTOL with an exposed seat.
The two are also apples and oranges in terms of propulsion. The Razor uses eight jet engines for greater speed, redundancy, and a more compact footprint. The Airwolf, a zero-emissions tiltrotor eVTOL, is capable of taking off and landing vertically with precision flight controls and, a major bonus—enough space for a passenger behind the driver. It also has fixed wings for gliding in emergencies.
The EDFs also permit easier storage in a garage compared to other aircraft with conventional propellers that require more width to achieve equivalent thrust. Madeja says the airframe will be manufactured in-house by UDX, and the electric components will be produced by the Czech MGM Compro, while battery cells will likely be sourced from Tesla.
The Airwolf is designed to cruise above all types of terrain.
UDX
The Airwolf will have a 30-mile range initially, and with battery advances and optimization, Madeja is confident the final commercial version will be able to fly 60 miles for about 25 minutes. With zero-to-60 mph acceleration in just three seconds and a top speed of 140 mph, it will fly twice as fast as nearly every other single-seat eVTOL in development. Madeja sees search and rescue as another mission for the Airwolf.
Thrilling performance, heightened agility, and doubling the speed does come with a hefty price tag of about $375,000—almost double of its other one-seat competitors, but comparable to the rival Razor.
Madeja expects the Airwolf to fall under an FAA Special Airworthiness Certificate, Experimental Category, requiring an AMEL (Airplane Multi-Engine Land) private pilot’s license to fly in the United States. Airwolf plans to make the U.S. its launch market and eventual manufacturing base. The license will be attainable with about 50 hours of training. If development stays on track, the Airwolf should be commercially available by 2028.