Following up on the earlier announcement that Pratt & Whitney has joined main sponsor Boeing as a supporter, the GoFly competition held a brief event on Tuesday at the United Technologies Farnborough Airshow chalet (Outdoor Exhibit 4). Representatives from both sponsor companies displayed the passion for the project that their companies are backing with their checkbooks—Boeing has committed $2 million; P&W, $100,000, so far. The mission is to use teamwork to design and build a personal flying device that can lift off vertically and safely carry a person for 20 miles without refueling or recharging.
The big stars of the show were three members of UK-based “Team Leap,” organized by team leader Bruno Howard and one of 10 winners of Phase 1, $20,000 awards for its Vantage five-rotor flying bike design. With a degree in mechanical engineering and experience in the field of venture capital, Howard met up with the other members of the team on a GoFly online forum. Also at the event were team members Jakob Howard (no relation), who is responsible for integrating the Vantage’s hybrid-electric powerplant and rotor drive system; and Nikhil Aggarwal, in charge of structural design.
Team Leap and other contenders are set to launch Phase 2, with an eye toward flying a prototype of their designs and earning the next-level prize of $50,000 from Boeing.
Comments
manolis
August 11, 2018 - 1:04am
Hello..
On August 1, 2018,
GoFly / Herox deleted the Forum wherein the contestants of the GoFly / BOEING contest presented their opinions and their complaints.
In the deleted Forum, everal contestants were complaining for lack of transparency and were threatening to sue BOEING for it.
Quote from the deleted Forum:
(July 9, 2018)
To put it simply, what I purchased with my 250 USD (paid to GoFly / Herox) is the following info:
“You are not in the ten winners of the Phase I. Period.”
Neither scoring, nor ranking, nor justification of the decision, nor a clue for the weak points the judges find in my solution, nothing at all.
Just that I am not in the ten winners of phase I. . .
And now they try to trap again the contestants with cheap “tricks” of the kind:
"Dear contestant, in order to get a REVIEW of your Phase I submission, you have first to register to phase II; and in order to register to phase II, you have, among others, to create a company, to pay insurance fee, to pay “team” fee and to give equity rights to GoFly.”
. . .
(22 June 2018)
BOEING, what is wrong with you?
Secrecy,
delays,
hiding of essential information (like analytical scoring and ranking),
publishing of highly misleading information (the “600+ innovators from 6 continents” turned it out to be 164 submissions),
breaking of basic rules (the 20 miles became 20 minutes),
selection of winners that beyond reasonable doubt do not comply with basic requirements (like the maximum size, the “vision cone”), etc.
Come on BOEING. You can better.
End of quote.
For more : http://www.pattakon.com/GoFly/index.html
Thanks
Manolis Pattakos