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Ola AirPro
Ola Electric
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
www.olaelectric.com
Founded in 2017 in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, Ola Electric is in the business ride-sharing and the design and manufacturing of electric scooters. The company has purchased electric cabs, e-buses and e-rickshaws that riders can use for on-demand ground taxi service. The company also set up multiple charging stations in India for their vehicles. The company raised over $1 billion USD by July 2019 and purchased an electric scooter manufacturer, Etergo, in May 2020. The company started deliveries of its own scooter models by December 2021.
On April 1, 2021, the company announced they had been working for six years, around the clock, to produce a road legal and air capable autonomous electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) passenger aircraft named the Ola AirPro. However, the announcement made on April 1, 2021 was for a very specific reason. The announcement turned out to be an April Fools’ Day joke by the company. Ola Electric built a website for the fictional aircraft (the website is now offline), published press releases and made a video about the aircraft. The employees featured on the video wore t-shirts with the fictional logo for the Ola AirPro aircraft.
The Ola AirPro eVTOL concept design road legal vehicle and aircraft holds two passengers, has a maximum cruise speed of 350 km/h (218 mph) and uses four fictional shark-fin wing rotors for propulsion. The term shark-fin wing rotors was made up by the company to help promote their April Fools’ Day prank. The aircraft has four electric motors for the rotors and four electric rotors for the road wheels. The aircraft has a streamlined futuristic look, has a canopy over the cockpit and has four wheels for traveling on the road and the road wheels also double for landing gear. The vehicle if real, would have fit in a standard parking space, driveway or garage.
One of the safety features of the aircraft includes detect and avoid technology. To land in the city, the company proposed to build what it called the Ola-Hive which would be a terrace (roof top) parking network. That is, the company proposed to build vertiports on as many skyscrapers and buildings in multiple cities, to allow the aircraft to land close to the departure and destination points for passengers.
Specifications:
- Aircraft type: eVTOL passenger concept design aircraft and road legal vehicle
- Piloting: Autonomous
- Capacity: 2 passengers
- Maximum speed: 350 km/h (218 mph)
- Propellers: 4 shark-fin wing rotors (these are fictional rotors)
- Electric motors: 8 electric motors
- Power source: Batteries
- Fuselage: Carbon fiber composite and titanium
- Windows: Canopy over cockpit
- Landing gear: 4 road tires
- Safety features: Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP), provides safety through redundancy for its passengers and/or cargo. DEP means having multiple propellers (or ducted fans) and motors on the aircraft so if one or more propellers (ducted fans) or motors fail, the other working propellers (or ducted fans) and motors can safely land the aircraft. There are also redundancies in the sub-systems of the aircraft.
Resources:
- Ola Electric website
- Article: Ola announces electric flying car AirPro, but there’s a catch, Business Today, Apr. 1, 2021
- Article: Ola’s fully autonomous flying car concept is a perfect April Fool’s prank, Hindustan Time Auto, Apr. 1, 2021
- Article: Ola’s Upcoming Electric Flying Car Will Have Unlimited Range and 350kmph Top Speed, Atleast on April 1, News 18, Apr. 1, 2021
- Video: Introducing the OLA AirPro | The world’s first fully autonomous electric flying car, Ola, Mar. 31, 2021
