Connect Derby Operations Manager Takes to the Skies Over the iHub

DERBY, U.K. - Dec. 18, 2019 - PRLog -- Connect Derby Operations Manager, Ros Stacey took the trip of a lifetime as she trialled a virtual reality flight over the iHub innovation centre on Infinity Park in Derby.

The virtual reality flight took place at the home of VRCO, an advanced aviation company, which is currently developing the NeoXCraft, a revolutionary flying car, from its home at the iHub.

The VR flight replicates the experience of taking your car to the skies, which it is hoped will become a reality when the exciting NeoXCraft achieves its certification in 2020.

Ros donned her VR headset and took control of the vehicle's joy-sticks for the breath-taking experience, which once operational, is set to turn a two-and-a-half-hour drive into a 30-minute commute.

VRCO was co-founded by Daniel Hayes and Michael Smith. who have more than 30 years' experience working with technology, engineering, manufacturing, product design and systems analysis.

The NeoXcraft is an electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) vectored thrust high-speed vehicle that will fly, drive on land, and can land and take off on water. Using four high-powered fans the NeoXCraft will be able to achieve speeds of up to 200mph after taking off. The fans will fold down to become wheels for land-based driving.

It has been under development by VRCO since 2016 in collaboration with the Institute for Innovation and Sustainable Engineering at the University of Derby.

VRCO are now developing the physical flying prototypes at the iHub and have benefited from verification services by AddQual, parts provision by Composite Braiding, fabrication work by HPS, Sensors from Quanergy and certification support by G&P, all of which are hosted in the iHub, bringing together an ideal eco system to support the building of their eVTOL NeoXcraft.

Speaking about the demo, Ros Stacey, operations manager at Connect Derby, said:

"It was amazing seeing the iHub from the skies. It's such an out-of-this-world experience to even try the craft in virtual reality – I can't imagine how incredible it's going to be to actually travel in the NeoXCraft on a regular basis.

"Seeing the iHub in this way was quite an experience and has made me realise what an impressive building it is."

Mike Smith and Daniel Hayes, co-founders of VRCO, added:

"Developing the VR experience flights gives people today a taste of what flying in a NeoXCraft will be like – or as close as we can currently achieve until the full-size craft is ready for trialling in late 2020.

"This environment also allows us to model the utilisation of low altitude airspace and how we can optimise it's governance to include a variety of aircrafts at different concentration levels."