00:00.
00:04Deep in the English countryside, aeronautical engineers
00:07are perfecting a new generation of aerial drone.
00:10With increased stability and manoeuvrability,
00:13and able to carry a much heavier payload,
00:16it represents a significant leap forward in drone technology.
00:22This small drone, however,
00:24is just the one-third proof-of-concept model
00:27for something much more ambitious.
00:31A full-sized quadcopter hoverbike
00:34that can be piloted by a person,
00:36as well as flown by remote.
00:39It's the brainchild of engineer and helicopter pilot
00:42Chris Malloy, who first tested his concept
00:44with this bicopter design.
00:47I've always been one to look at designs
00:49and see how I can make them better.
00:51And when I got my helicopter licence,
00:53I realised that a helicopter as a design
00:55has a lot of improvements that need to be made.
00:57And one of them is safety and reliability.
01:00I mean, they're very complex machines.
01:02And, yeah, but my goal was to see
01:05where we could strip away the complexity
01:07and increase the safety,
01:08and that's basically where the hoverbike came from.
01:12Engineers at Malloy Aeronautics
01:14are currently completing construction
01:15of the final prototype,
01:17with flight tests expected in a few months.
01:20The team first planned to launch the hoverbike
01:22as an autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle,
01:25before securing aviation certification for the manned model.
01:31Meanwhile, the smaller model has proved popular
01:33with drone enthusiasts around the world,
01:35and is contributing revenue towards the design
01:38and production of the full-sized version.
01:41Marketing director Grant Stapleton explains
01:44that the manned hoverbike is designed
01:45to be flown like a helicopter,
01:47and as such will be subject to the same stringent testing
01:50before a human can take to the skies.
01:55This hoverbike is a helicopter.
01:58It takes off like a helicopter,
02:00flies and lands like a helicopter.
02:02It's designed to fly to an altitude of over 9,000 feet,
02:07and do so at over 100 knots.
02:09It's much safer to be away from the ground
02:12where there isn't anything to hit in the air,
02:15and that's why it is designed as a helicopter.
02:21That issue of safety is one area
02:23where the team says the hoverbike
02:25has a clear advantage over the helicopter.
02:31Rotor strike is a major issue in helicopters.
02:34This here eliminates rotor strike
02:35by protecting the propeller blades
02:37from the ground and other airborne obstacles.
02:40The helicopter is inherently complex.
02:43The hoverbike is very simple,
02:45so from a complexity issue the hoverbike is safer,
02:49and it's built to be robust
02:51and flown in environments
02:52that a typical helicopter would have trouble in.
02:59While Malloy's vision of manned hoverbikes
03:01may be years away from reality,
03:03the advances in drone technology
03:05that the team is making
03:06means that ambition is nearly within his grasp.
03:14Nothing!
03:15Very nice!
03:15Beep!
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