A group of entrepreneurs at Tacoma-based Zeva are in the process of building a single person aircraft capable of drone-style flight.
"We're making a single person aircraft that moves unlike anything the world has ever seen before," said Ben Gould, one of the leaders at Zeva. "It's not a new idea. Flying cars have been around since the Jetsons, for sure, but the technology that is available to us today is really amazing."
Zeva co-founder Stephen Tibbitts is another leader on the project. "Creating the kind of tech jobs in Tacoma that people would want to work at is really the key thing for me,” said Tibbitts.
"As we need more and more expertise, we're very lucky to be in Tacoma. We're very lucky to have so many specialties all around us," Gould said.
Gould and Tibbitts started out with a napkin sketch that turned into a working model called 'The Zero,' which is reminiscent of a personal flying saucer.
"All of the motors will kick in and then it will rise off the ground and then quickly make a transition into flight mode where it's flying forward. It needs to cruise at about 80 to 100 mph to maintain its lift and so it’s pretty fast,” said Tibbitts.
“We're also looking at integrating a lot of other technology so we can land on the side of buildings, so we can land in the middle of an urban setting," said Gould.
The price tag for the Zero won’t make it available to everyone.
"It’s about 140,000 dollars, like a really high-end sports car,“ said Tibbitts.
The Zeva team believes, at some point, this could be the way we cut through traffic, save lives, and eventually lift-off into the future.
