Zephyr Airworks Mule ZK-UZA

Noted last month at the RNZAF Air Force Museum of New Zealand at Wigram was the Zephyr Airworks Mule SPA ZK-UZA 

c/n 002. 
First listed as N302XZ to Kitty Hawk Corporation of Mountain View, California from 02-08-2017.
It came to NZ and became ZK-UZA with Zephyr Airworks LLC of Wellington on 03-10-2017, with a change to Wisk New Zealand LLC from 12-10-2020.
It was withdrawn and cancelled on 13-04-2021.

An early post on this aircraft can be see at :-

https://nzcivair.blogspot.com/search?q=zk-uza

The Sport Aircraft Year 2017

As 2017 draws to a close, I thought I would look back on the sport aircraft year briefly (There is a problem with just what is a sport aircraft but I do not include most rag and tube microlights in the following):

By my reckoning there were 31 new sport aircraft registered including first of types the SPA Panther ZK-PMD2, Zlin Shock Cub ZK-EUP2, Morgan 10 Cheyenne ZK-CZJ2, RK Jungster ZK-DDA2 and Techpro Merlin ZK-MEF, Ariane Swift (a potentially foot launched glider) ZK-LAJ and our first Technam P2002 Sierra Mk II ZK-EVE2.

2 new amateur built helicopters were registered.

5 sport aircraft were returned to the register.

6 sport aircraft had their registrations changed.

8 gyrocopters were registered including one new type - the Delta Trikes J-RO ZK-RAC3.

11 sport aircraft were cancelled from the register including sadly 3 in fatal accidents being Titan Mustang ZK-SMF, Rans S 6 ZK-TJE2 and Rans S 19 ZK-MBX.  And 2 gyropcopters were cancelled including Bensen B8M ZK-OOZ which was involved in a fatal accident.

The weather wasn't kind to airshows/flyins with both the Wings Over Wairarapa and Black Sands Flyin being cancelled, and Classic Fighters dodged a bullet with a weather bomb just sliding by.  However I thought that Classic Fighters was great, and so was the RAANZ Flyin at Rangiora which was blessed with settled weather over the whole country for the whole weekend, resulting in a great attendance of visiting aircraft.

I reckon the highlight of the year was Graeme Frew's exploits at Reno.

And another highlight for me was the gathering of 4 Supermarine Spitfire Mk 26's at Loburn Abbey.  ZK-SPT, ZK-MEB, ZK-EFY2 (it was registered G-CENI then) and ZK-CGV2.  I wish I could have been there.

And finally, a mystery - Does anyone know anything about the Zephyr Airworks Mule SPA ZK-UZA, that is ex N302ZX and was registered to Zephyr Airworks LLC of Wellington in October 2017?

ZK-UZA - Zephyr Airworks Autonomous Electric Aircraft Revealed!

In my last post of 2017 I finished by asking the question:  "Does anyone know anything about the Zephyr Airworks Mule SPA ZK-UZA, that is ex N302ZX and was registered to Zephyr Airworks LLC of Wellington in October 2017?"

I had no takers at the time, but all has been revealed today.  I get a feed from Interesting Engineering and there it was!

ZK-UZA turns out to be an Autonomous Electric Aircraft that is named Cora and that has been developed by a US company Kitty Hawk, which is backed by the co-founder of Google Larry Page and is in partnership with the New Zealand Government!  The publicity says that the aircraft has been having test flights in New Zealand and there is a video which may or may not have been taken from the aircraft showing flying around the Port Hills and Lyttleton Harbour.

It looks very impressive with its 12 independent electrically driven rotors.  It is capable of carrying 2 people over a range of 100 kilometres at speeds of over 150 kilometres per hour driven by a pusher electric motor, and it can take off and land vertically.

Zephyr Airworks is Kitty Hawk's operator in New Zealand.

Zephyr Airworks Mule ZK-UZB

Following Blue Bus's post on the Zephyr Airworks Mule ZK-UZA, I realised that we had not covered its stable mate ZK-UZB in a blog post (we did feature it as a heading photo but you can't search for that).  So herewith ZK-UZB:

ZK-UZB (c/n 004) was registered to Wisk NZ LLC on 209'18.  I photo'd it at Tekapo on 9/9/19 when it was undergoing test flying - here being towed out from behind the bunker that kept prying eyes at bay.

And after start up it took to the skies.  I recall that it was quite stable but it was surprisingly noisy (not from the electric engines but from the propellors).  It was cancelled on 20/9/21 as withdrawn.  I guess their work in New Zealand has finished.

Wisk Aero is a joint venture between Boeing and the Kitty Hawk Corporation which was formed in 2019.  I see that Wisk Aero has recently partnered with the City of Long Beach to provide an Advanced Air Mobility programme (That is an eVTOL taxi service) within the next 2 years.