Matt Pearson founded Airspeeder, a flying car racing series, in 2016 with the vision of accelerating the next-generation mobility revolution through healthy competition. Pearson is also the founder of Alauda Aeronautics. According to Forbes, Alauda and Airspeeder’s business model is similar to Formula E racing. Alauda will supply the hardware to multiple racing teams to build and develop their “flying cars” or eVTOLs and race around a virtual racetrack in the sky. In this manner, the racing teams and Alauda could explore the technological limits of flying vehicles.
The Airspeeder MK3 debuted in February 2021 and conducted its series of maiden flights by June. However, the MK3 is an ultra-light, electric-powered VTOL octocopter flown via remote control. Alauda claims the Airspeeder MK3 can perform hairpin turns better than a Formula One racing car, and it has a swappable battery pack. Developed explicitly to compete in the EXA Racing Series, the MK3 is a testbed for what’s possible in the blossoming world of flying cars.