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Russian research agency selects 10 bids in ‘Flying Car’ contest

The aim of the project is to create a prototype of an aircraft with a vertical or super-short takeoff by 2021

MOSCOW, March 24. /TASS/. Russia’s agency for advanced research, the Foundation for Advanced Research Projects, has selected 10 bids as part of its competition to design a vertical or super-short takeoff aircraft.

"Ten participants made it into the second round of the 'Free Takeoff' competition," the agency said on its website.

A senior consultant with the agency’s physical and technical research department, Yan Chibisov, earlier said that more than 60 research groups have submitted their entries.

"It should be simple and accessible… a flying car, to put in other words," Chibisov said while announcing the competition.

The foundation launched the competition in January 2017. Under the terms of the contest, the winners will get an opportunity for signing a three-million-ruble contract to create the preliminary design of their project to prove that the calculations and experiments behind the idea are correct. The aim of the project is to create by 2021 a prototype of an aircraft with a vertical or super-short (requiring an area of 50 square meters or less) takeoff, able to transport passengers and/or cargo weighting between 100 and 1,000 kg.

Under the terms of the competition, the aircraft should have a remote control function, along with unmanned and manned flight modes. It may be based on the existing designs of gyrocopters, convertiplanes and multirotors, but helicopter-based entries will be rejected.