MACHINES
Hover Jet
When your portfolio includes a machine
possessing the world’s largest production
motorcycle engine, bragging rights come easy...
B y B I L L VA R E T I M I D I S
TRAVELLING TO 500 KM WITH
CARGO OR PASSENGERS
— OR 1000 KM WITHOUT
T
he Cavorite X5 was never intended to be an
EVTOL (Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing)
concept. It was originally imagined as an electric
amphibious vehicle, like the RC-3 Seabee from
the 1940s. But after realising the long range vertical lift system
belonged somewhere more useful/marketable, Canadian startup
Horizon Aircraft went the hybrid plane/copter route.
The X5 was named after a cool gravity-defying metal from
the HG Wells’ 1901 novel, The First Men In The Moon, which
could cancel out the effects of gravity. The plane shares similar
characteristics — able to hover vertically before taking flight like
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powertrain with the bulk of the power coming from an LS V8 engine.
It sports the design of a sleek stealth-bomber, and comes with
wings that split open like a Transformer to reveal multiple fans
underneath. These fans help the EVTOL take off and land vertically
(like a helicopter), while the outer covers close to turn the X5 into
a fighter wing-based aircraft that can hit speeds of up to 350 km/h.
Its range ain’t bad either, travelling to 500 km with cargo or
passengers — or 1000 km without.
Science fiction had us believe you could have a helicopter that
could grow wings and fly like a jet. Now that Horizon are currently
working on a 1:6 scale version which will see production as early
as 2024, the sci-fi wet dream is becoming a reality. ■