Australia’s aviation regulator has cleared Alauda Aeronautics to begin piloted test flights of its Airspeeder Mk4 racing craft, issuing an experimental flight certificate that sets a global precedent for regulated aerial motorsport.
The pathway to crewed aerial racing has been built on years of flight-test data from the remotely piloted Mk3 program, which logged hundreds of sorties and staged demonstration races over South Australian desert circuits using augmented-reality “sky tracks”.
Matt Pearson, Co-founder of Airspeeder, the described the nascent electric flying car racing competition as “the Formula 1 of robotics”.
“[It’s] where safety, autonomy, and edge AI meet real-world speed,” Pearson said. “We’ve created a sport that solves real engineering challenges and accelerates the future of mobility through racing.”
Airspeeder’s format borrows heavily from elite motorsport with fast development cycles and heavy telemetry helping to push eVTOL performance and safety systems.
Tech heavyweights such as Intel, Dell, AWS and Telstra have backed the series’ compute and race control stack.
“Each Airspeeder racecraft is essentially a flying AI PC – capturing, processing, and acting on massive streams of data in real time.” said John Roese, global chief technology officer and chief AI officer at Dell Technologies.
“This isn’t just the future of sport; it’s a proving ground for the next era of intelligent, autonomous mobility.”
Hans Chuang, regional general manager of sales and marketing for Intel, said the chipmaker is continuing its three-year long relationship with airspeeder
We are excited to be powering the next transformation in transportation, as demonstrated by Intel silicon powering the first manned flying racing speeder”, he said.
“Our longstanding relationship has helped us understand how AI, low latency networks and edge computing can combine to help drive this transportation revolution.”
There is not yet a date for the first crewed Mk4 to race, but when it finally it moves the concept showpiece into a certified, flight-ready racecraft built in Adelaide.
“Racing is where innovation happens at the edge,” said Jack Withinshaw, co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer at Airspeeder.
“We’re building a sport that brings together the best engineers, brands, and minds to shape the future of mobility. That’s the magic of Airspeeder.”
Daily startup news and insights, delivered to your inbox.