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Ken Karklin, the CEO of Pivotal, has had a several-decade career in engineering, aircraft and robotics. He knows technology as license holder of multiple patents. His latest passion is the Helix.
Highlighted at the recent Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas, the Helix is the only personal flying vehicle in production in the United States. Public sales began January 8.
Karklin is our guest on this week’s episode of The Weekly Driver Podcast. Co-hosts Bruce Aldrich and James Raia discuss with Karklin the new vehicle and his experiences flying the Helix. We examine the practical uses of the aircraft, the regulations of the ultralight and the specs of the 15-foot-long machine. It has vertical take-off and a forward-tilting design for flight mode.
Weighing just 360 pounds, the Helix falls under the FAA Part 103 (Ultralight) classification, allowing flight without a pilot’s license. The EV has dual wings housing eight motors and batteries and can fly for two hours at 62 miles per hour
With deliveries scheduled to begin in June, the Helix base model is priced at $190,000. With extensive additional features like 4K cameras and flight-traffic control systems, the price increases to $260,000.
Please join us for a look at the future of personal transportation.
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Hosted by James Raia and Bruce Aldrich, The Weekly Driver Podcast dives deep into the highways and byways of the automotive world. Each week, we put you in the driver’s seat, exploring unique, unusual, and often untold stories from across the industry’s spectrum.
Article Last Updated: January 23, 2024.
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A sports, travel and business journalist for more than 45 years, James has written the new car review column The Weekly Driver since 2004.
In addition to founding this site in 2004, James writes a Sunday automotive column for The San Jose Mercury and East Bay Times in Walnut Creek, Calif., and monthly auto review and wellness columns for Gulfshore Business, a magazine in Southwest Florida.
An author and contributor to many newspapers, magazines and online publications, co-hosted The Weekly Driver Podcast from 2017 to 2024.
