‘The objective is to get the whole world into a new age of transportation’
Better known for his work designing hypercars, Frank Stephenson is now the director of design for AutoFlight’s latest eVTOL, the Prosperity I, which will transform mass transportation of the…
Better known for his work designing hypercars, Frank Stephenson is now the director of design for AutoFlight’s latest eVTOL, the Prosperity I, which will transform mass transportation of the future.
Talking to FINN at Paris Air Show 2023 about the project, Stephenson said, “For a designer, it is always exciting to work at a certain level when you start designing sports cars and things like that, but the real challenge here is a whole new age of mobility. When you work at the high end of hyper cars, it is nice but you’re very limited in the type of customer who gets to drive something that, whereas the objective here is to get the whole world into a whole new age of transportation.”
The company is now working with the authorities to certify the aircraft, and it will be operating at a level which is equivalent or even more safe than commercial airliners today, according to Stephenson. “In a billion hours of flying, there would be only one potential catastrophic incident so it is a very high level of safety, so people using it should be confident that it is a safe way to travel,” he added.
There is a lot of competition in the eVTOL market, but Stephenson believes this is helping to shape the way the market develops to provide the best solution to urban transportation in the future. “Everybody is pushing everybody else, nobody is really showing their cards yet as to what they’re doing, but competition is always good and I think the secret for us at AutoFlight is simplicity and not over complicating what we need to do,” Stephenson said.
Subscribe to the FINN weekly newsletter
