Hover Cops Are Coming…
Automologist MAC reports on Dubai Police’s latest emergency vehicle…and it’s straight out of sci-fi.
It is safe to say that Dubai in the UAE is home to some pretty flashy stuff and, of course, it has long had a Police Department that has over-the-top gear to match. I can just imagine the conversation in the Police garage; “Morning, Sarge. Shall we take the Aventador or the Aston Martin?” “Nah, we drove them last week, let’s take the Veyron out today!”
Beginning this year, though, the options for the lucky Dubai’s law enforcers will also include a real-life flying hoverbike. Not satisfied with having a fleet of some of the world’s fastest cars in which to go out and issue parking tickets, the Kingdom’s finest are now getting hoverbikes so that they can get to those hard-to-reach places (no, this is not a toothbrush advert).
The bike has been developed by a Russian company called Hoversurf, which originally debuted the Scorpion-3 at the 2017 Expo in Dubai. The new Police bike is based on the earlier model and is electrically powered and configured pretty much like a four-rotor drone. The latest version of the Scorpion-3 can fly at about 5 metres high and troll along at about 70kph, with a full charge allowing 25 minutes of flying time but with only one rider for now.
Obviously, with those sort of performance stats, this edition to the Kingdom’s policing fleet is not designed to chase the bad guys. Instead, the city plans to use the vehicle to get to those out-of-the-way places in an emergency, for instance. You know, if there is a fender-bender causing a jam then the cops could, in theory, fly over the jam to get to the accident faster.
