As I peruse Alibaba for all sorts of fun and interesting electric vehicles, I often stumble across seemingly outlandish products that often have a real use case behind them. The best of those make it into the recurring Awesome Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column, and that’s precisely where this man-carrying drone lands today.
Expand Expanding Close
I’ve finally done it, folks! Ever since I started this Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column, where I search for crazy EVs on China’s largest shopping platform, I’ve been hunting for an electric passenger aircraft. I was hoping to find some type of ultralight plane, but it’s been pretty tough.
Don’t get me wrong, you can find all sorts of ultralight deathtrap aircraft, but they’re all gas-powered. Alibaba is definitely full of shady-looking EVs that seem near death-defying (remember that one-wheeled electric motorcycle?). But for the life of me, I just couldn’t find an electric aircraft.
Expand Expanding Close
A youtuber (gasturbine101) built a manned drone prototype powered by 54 rotors equipped with small battery packs. He posted a video of a 6 minute test flight last week.
Expand
Expanding
Close
