MOBILITY

Heavenly Races

It's not a car, nor is it a plane, and somehow it's not quite in between either. The AirKart is an eVTOL – a vertical take-off and landing aircraft developed by British start-up Elevate Racing for private use and racetracks. Are we looking at the racing cars of the future?

Text
Lisa Kummerer
Photos
Elevate Racing

“It sometimes seemed to fly – at least that's how it felt,” said Sebastian Vettel, commenting on the car he drove to victory across the finish line in Abu Dhabi in 2013. And now, a good decade later? Some races could soon actually take place in the air. Soon means 2027. That's when British start-up Elevate Racing plans to open its AeroKarting tracks in the United States, the Caribbean, Africa, and the Middle East.

AirKarts will then fly on the AeroKarting tracks – these are racing cars for the air, developed by the start-up and available for visitors to hire for a specific period of time for use on the track. The AirKarts can also be purchased for private use away from the AeroKarting tracks.

How Elevate Racing's AirKarts work

The AirKart from Elevate Racing is an eVTOL, which stands for Electric Vehicle Takeoff and Landing. This means that the vehicles can take off and land vertically like drones, but instead of transporting objects, they transport people. In the case of the AirKart, this is exactly one person: the pilot. In addition, eVTOLs, and therefore also the AirKarts, are electrically powered – meaning they fly emission-free.

British start-up Elevate Racing drew inspiration from Formula 1 racing cars when developing the AirKart. This is evident in the bodywork and frame, which form a single shell, similar to Formula 1 racing cars. The combination of flax fibres, bio-based resins, aerospace-grade alloys, carbon fibres and Kevlar creates a hybrid composite material that is lightweight, stable, sustainable and durable.

Power is provided by eight electric motors, two of which are stacked vertically and mounted in four positions. This allows the AirKarts to fly at speeds of up to 100 km/h, reach an altitude of 400 metres and maintain 15 minutes of flight time before needing to be recharged.

Flying made easy

The pilots of Elevate Racing's AirKarts can choose between two flight modes: EasyFly mode makes it easy even for beginners to control the eVTOL. It can then automatically avoid obstacles, land at the touch of a button and dampen hectic control movements. This is aided by integrated LiDAR technology (short for Light Detection and Ranging), which uses laser signals to scan the environment and detect potential obstacles. In Sport mode, the pilot controls the AirKart themselves, with everything operated manually.

The AirKarts will be available for order starting in 2026.

→ elevate-racing.com

Lisa Kummerer

Editor

Spent the weekends of her childhood alternating between a light blue Opel Olympia Rekord and a red Alfa Romeo Spider 2.0, mostly reading. The destination? The journey. Ever since, she has been enthusiastic about the beautiful things in life. Studied fashion journalism, practising editor. Most likely to be found in the cinema, in the kitchen, with a violin on her shoulder or lifting weights. Please note: rarely in the car.

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