Scale model of local flying vehicle turns up at Lima

LANGKAWI (Bernama): If you are eager to see how air mobility system looks like, the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace 2019 (Lima’19) exhibition here is a great place for you to do so.

Although it is just a scale model, the public can have a clearer idea of the physical look of the vehicle that could be flown someday.

Known as Vector, the vehicle’s debut at the Mahsuri International Exhibition Centre (MIEC) has been stealing the limelight of this year’s edition as many patrons were intrigued to see it.

Most of them thought Vector is touted to be the much-talked flying car, but it is nowhere near that.

In fact, Aerodyne Group Business Development and Consulting Senior Director, Imtyaz Mohd Azzat, refuted the idea that the company was developing a flying car as Vector, to be exact, was designed to be a point-to-point air transportation system.

Imtyaz explained that Vector was a drone-concept vehicle that was designed for carrying passengers, cargo delivery and surveillance purpose.

“Vector is powered by four motors and a lithium-ion battery that enables the vehicle to fly.

“This vehicle can also carry a load of approximately of 150-200kg and fly about 50m above ground level at 60km/h speed and 30 up to 90 minutes of flying time,” he told Bernama on the sidelines of LIMA’19 here, today.

Asked on when the vehicle was expected to cruise over the sky, Imtyaz said Vector prototype was slated to be ready to fly as early as June this year.

He also said that their four-year-old company with experience in drone technology had yet to dictate the price of Vector should the vehicle be ready to enter the market soon.

On the government support, Imtyaz said he was grateful that the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development had been supportive and very open so far by helping the company to develop the ecosystem that made this idea worked.

“Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is also pleased with this idea when he visited the booth,” he quipped.

The 15th edition of Lima saw the participation of 406 defence-related companies, 200 of which are international corporations, from 32 countries.

It is co-organised by the EN Projects (M) Sdn Bhd, the Defence Ministry and the Transportation Ministry, with the theme ‘Defence and Commercial Connecting Intelligence’. - Bernama