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Hydrogen-Powered Flying Formula 1 Car to Debut at CES 2021

The company's carcopter prototype was designed specifically for flying car racing.

Based in Southern France, MACA is a new startup in the flying car game with a concept they call the Carcopter. And while the name doesn't suggest it, this one is pretty.

The brainchild of an ex-fighter pilot, Thierry De Boisvilliers and a 12-year Airbus Helicopter veteran, Michael Krollak, with nearly 60 years of combined aeronautics experience, Carcopter is a hydrogen-powered flying Formula 1 car. Though the team has been working on the project for the last three years, MACA (Make Accessible Carcopter to Anyone) was founded in November 2019. Thus far, they have created a small, third-scale, battery-powered replica that is about 2.5 m long. At full scale, the Carcopter will be about 6 m long, hydrogen-powered and have a top speed of 153 mph.

Though CES 2021 has gone virtual this year, MACA is still attending in an attempt to get a few more eyes on it's sleek concept as well as attract potential partners and investors. The company is looking to raise the equivalent of USD $364,534 to create a full-scale demonstration vehicle, and they haven't ruled out crowdfunding as a possibility.

As first reported by designboom, the company's carcopter prototype was designed specifically for flying car racing. The company hopes to achieve the first piloted flying hydrogen formula 1 car flight in December 2021. As we’ve seen in other flying car concepts, the hope is to gain acceptance and excitement through racing before a commercial vehicle was created after further regulation and adoption, which is much further down the road, or flight path, I suppose. 

The initial concept vehicle is powered by six 35kW electric engines, but the company has already partnered with GreenGT, a Swiss company that develops electric-hydrogen propulsion systems.

MACA is targeting a first race event in December 2022. MACA hopes to start flying Formula 1 circuits in 2023. 

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