Ever since the XP-38 came out, these just aren’t in demand…*
Actually, there probably would be a demand for a real-life Landspeeder. That’s why Israel’s Urban Aeronautics has worked since 2008 on a vertical-take-off-and-land drone airship called the AirMule, which just so happens to look like Luke Skywalker’s family cruiser.
But from the looks of it, it won’t be racing around Tattooine any time soon. It’s cool that the AirMule’s ducted fans can keep it aloft. But those guidewires make it look like the robotic equivalent of a toddler swaying on his Big Wheel. And since we saw photographic footage of a similar takeoff a year and a half ago, it doesn’t inspire much confidence in the company’s progress, even though the Urban Aeronautics says it kept the tethers on to comply with “civil aviation and insurance flight clearance requirements.”
On the other hand, Urban Aeronautics reports that the drone may get an upgrade: robotic arms. No longer would the quasi-Landspeeder just be used for medical evacuation or hauling cargo. Attach remote controlled winches to the AirMule, and you could fly it to pump “heavy water into pools covering uranium rods inside damaged nuclear reactors,” like during Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi crisis. That is, if you don’t want to use the Force.
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