The Pegasus Vertical Business Jet (VBJ) being developed in South Africa is entering its next phase, with two quarter-scale models to be ready for testing and engineering by May 2021, and a full-scale unmanned hover model by the end of the year.
EngineerIT reports that this follows the successful hover demonstration of a 1/8-scale model in July last year and the registration of patent rights in South Africa, Europe and the US.
The aircraft intends to revolutionise business travel globally and free travellers from the burden of the time-consuming drive to the airport. It combines and enhances the characteristics of a helicopter with the luxury, range and speed of a business jet, and has been hailed by the Urban Mobility Project as the sixth most likely to succeed globally in a 2019 independent review by Abbott Aerospace. (The review included 100 different projects, including some sponsored and supported by Boeing, Airbus and various governments around the world as well as venture capital companies with billions of dollars in funding).
“Most of these are of the air taxi type, therefore more compelling and exciting for us is that we were ranked first in the VTOL airplanes aimed at business jet type mission profile,” says Dr. Reza Mia who first conceptualised the Pegasus VBJ.
Dr Mia, a South African practitioner in the field of aesthetic medicine and an avid aeronautics scholar, is the founding ceo of Pegasus Universal Aerospace and chairman of the company. Read more