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Award-Winning Project Deep Sky Anticipates Future VTOL Trends With Simple Design

There’s no doubt that VTOLs will eventually be a thing. Even recent testings by manufacturers have led to some very promising results. The award-winning VTOL design you see here, may, one day, be exactly what you’re flying around in.
Project Deep Sky Personal VTOL 8 photos
Photo: Isaac Chan via Behance
Project Deep Sky Personal VTOLProject Deep Sky Personal VTOLProject Deep Sky Personal VTOLProject Deep Sky Personal VTOLProject Deep Sky Personal VTOLJetPack Aviation SpeederJetPack Aviation Recreational Speeder
It’s possible you’ve read the news lately and heard about JetPack Aviation and the successful testing they’ve achieved with the P1.0 Speeder platform. That alone should tell you all you need to know about when the possible VTOL future may arrive. Hey, guess what, it’s already here.

Because these sorts of vehicles will be part of our daily journey, designers and engineers are already popping up left and right, promising the next successful design. One that seems to show such promise is the award-winning Project Deep Sky (PDS).

PDS is an idea and design from the mind of one Isaac Chan, of Hong Kong, China. This product and industrial designer seems to have begun his professional training around 2016, but in the past five years, he has been responsible for a dozen designs ranging from sunglasses to kitchen appliances and vehicles. He seems to be so full of promise that this design won him the bronze medal at the Qianhai Hong Kong Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. So, a businessman as well?

Project Deep Sky Personal VTOL
Photo: Isaac Chan via Behance
The overall structure of the PDS is rather simple. This could well be one of the reasons for its award. Based around a classic drone configuration, the PDS is powered by four propellers set on a classic four-corner configuration. Each propeller is then attached to the base of the PDS. Whether these propellers can tilt as to offer forward, backward, and side to side movement, isn’t revealed in the designer’s Behance page.

Part two of the design is the passenger capsule itself. If the propeller action and design didn’t win the bronze medal, the capsule surely did. One discerning feature of the cabin is its long and sleek design. Not only does it look aerodynamic due to the lifted lip in the front and long flowing lines, but the glass cover is sure to offer one heck of a view as you fly over your neighborhood.

Inside the cockpit, there isn’t much to go on. The only feature that Chan unveils is the seat. A bucket seat with padding for a soft experience is in place, but absolutely no sort of controls or anything a passenger may fiddle with.

JetPack Aviation Recreational Speeder
Photo: JetPack Aviation
This leads me to also believe that the PDS will most likely be autonomous. If this is the case, then it’s in line with the sort of integrated and autonomous future humans are currently working on. Since recent design trends also pit autonomy with electricity, it is also safe to assume that this VTOL will likely be an electric one. But this is an assumption, so don’t really bet on it.

However, the recent testing of the Speeder platform showed that JetPack Aviation is employing miniature jet engines to power their future vehicle and even some of the jetpacks they currently produce. This means that the first personal VTOLs to hit the skies will probably be running on some sort of fossil fuel.

Now, I'm not saying that the PDS will be the exact vehicle you see flying around your neighborhood in the next coming years, the Speeder stands a much real chance of being that vehicle, but a personal VTOL based around a four-propeller system looks to still be the desired design, for now anyway.
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About the author: Cristian Curmei
Cristian Curmei profile photo

A bit of a nomad at heart (being born in Europe and raised in several places in the USA), Cristian is enamored with travel trailers, campers and bikes. He also tests and writes about urban means of transportation like scooters, mopeds and e-bikes (when he's not busy hosting our video stories and guides).
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