SkyBusSkyBus

Millions of people in the Greater Bay Area live in one city and work in another, yet the hardest 40–60 km still takes two to three hours: too far for the metro, too close for high-speed rail, with sea, a border or a jammed bridge in the way. Fast options cost too much; affordable ones are too slow. SkyBus fills that gap: a 12-seat electric aircraft that makes the trip in about 40 minutes.

We designed the aircraft and the whole operation around it. The SkyBus-CW3 takes off vertically like a helicopter, so it needs no runway, then switches to fixed-wing cruise once airborne. Nine point-to-point routes link vertiports on piers, at airports and at border crossings, each 12–20 minutes in the air and run to a timetable: a bus service, not a charter.

SkyBus is a team project that I built together with two teammates. Because it belongs to the whole team, the detailed design materials stay private; the overview below is what we can share. It won a Gold Medal at the Silicon Valley International Invention Festival. Our thanks go to our advisor, Vico Wu Kui.