Doron Merdinger is a visionary with a clear objective to democratize aviation. It all started one day when he was stuck in traffic, and he thought that there had to be a better way of transport.
"We are still traveling in this two-dimensional world using a 4,000-year-old invention called the wheel," Merdinger said.
Back in 2016, Merdinger — the CEO and founder of Doroni Aerospace — gathered a talented team and started developing a flying vehicle: a mix between a drone and a helicopter that falls in the EVTOL (Electric Vertical Take Off and Landing) category.
His goal? To manufacture a flying car.
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"Low maintenance low cost, easy to charge, easy to control, very intuitive — and we will show that it will be way safer than any other vehicle out there in the commercial aviation," Merdinger said.
A flying test of the Doroni H1 took place at their headquarters in Pompano. NBC6 also had the chance to experience what it feels like to take off and fly with this vehicle thanks to virtual reality.
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"And my question is, why do we need to create more roads and destroy our habitat?" Merdinger said. "To facilitate traveling in a two-dimensional world, you have to put asphalt, concrete, take out the trees, so why do we need that if we already have in-house the technology to do it? It’s a matter of improving, creating the right packages, if you will.”
Merdinger believes everyone will own a flying car in the future just like everyone owns a car now.
"For a simple reason, all these technologies in the beginning are more expensive, they are more cumbersome, but with time, they show the potential and they become more affordable," he said.
The approximate price for one of these vehicles is between $250,000 and $300,000. Their objective is to produce seven a day. To be able to fly it, you only need a driver's license and undergo a 20-hour course given by the company.
Merdinger isn’t a stranger to this technology, he was a member of the Israeli Air Force working closely with the technology behind drones. The Doroni H1 is designed to fly at a few hundred feet, which allows you to be fully engaged with your surroundings.
The Doroni H1 is being designed with state-of-the-art technology. In case something goes wrong during flight, it will automatically start to descend, and in an extreme situation, it has a ballistic parachute one can deploy.
This company already has over 200 units pre-ordered.
