Rinchi
TechInAfrica – Morris Mbetsa is a 28-year-old Kenyan who invented Africa’s first flying taxi. The idea came up after he joined the exclusive club of aeronautical engineers last year. Then, he invented the idea of flying passengers using a drone.
Mbetsa started his interest in technology when he was six years old. He even claimed that technology is his life. Unlike other boys who loved watching football matches, he had electronics and wires in his room.
Mbetsa said that studying was not his cup of tea as he was very impatient. As a result, he dropped out of college to focus more on his interest in technology.
The internet was his best teacher as he gathered the knowledge and skills he needed to pursue his dream of developing the passenger drone.
The flying taxi inventor had an aeronautical training at the Notre Dame University in the United States and an internship program at the IBM Innovation Forum in Boston. These trainings helped him to gain and redefined skills he needed to develop the idea.
As he obtained the skills he needed, then he realized that innovation is not shared with Africa. Many African countries have bad land infrastructures and constant floods, thus, developed countries found it difficult to work on this project in Africa. Mbetsa took this challenge to start the project in his homeland country.
The flying taxi is electric powered and able to carry one passenger up to 25 minutes at a speed of more than 120 km/h with an elevation between 10 and 30 feet above the ground level. Mbetsa said that in order to fly the drone, you need to be trained and be certified first then you are allowed to operate it.
Mbetsa and his team were working on an air traffic control system to improve the communication between all the drone taxis while flying.
Source: Kenyans.co.ke
