Kitty Hawk, the electric flying car startup partners with Boeing

Flying cars are the stuff of science fiction, the ultimate plaything for the rich and famous. Something that is small enough to fit in someone’s garage, but is capable of flying over a city’s traffic snarls definitely gets people’s attention. Venture capitalists have been pouring increasingly larger sums of money into startups that are aiming to develop an economically viable flying car that runs on electricity. Kitty Hawk, the flying electric car manufacturer founded by Sebastian Thurn has entered into a collaboration with Boeing to develop safety measures and autonomous systems for flying taxis.

Sebastian Thurn is a former vice president at Google and is also the co-founder and chairman of Udacity. His latest venture to develop autonomous electric flying cars is supported by Larry Page, who serves as the CEO of Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company. Kitty Hawk has already rolled out two vehicles as part of its portfolio- Flyer, which is a vehicle for personalized flight and Cora, an air taxi that can accommodate two passengers. Both aircraft are electric. Cora features vertical take-off and landing, wherein it can take-off like a helicopter and then fly straight like a plane.

Thurn’s company is named after the little town in North Carolina that became world famous after Orville and Wilber Wright made the very first controlled flight and ushered in commercial aviation.