this is the blackfly, a new type of single—passenger craft. now, you may have never heard of opener, the company that made it, and that's because it has been operating in secret for the past nine years. the eight rotors are powered by the on—board battery, offering travel distances of about 25 miles. in the us, speeds would be restricted to 62 mph. you don't need a runway because this pav, or personal aerial vehicle, can take off and land vertically. in fact, it doesn't even have wheels, and that is partly due to its amphibious ambitions. it can land on water if necessary. now, after you have towed it to your take—off spot, it's time to quickly assemble the craft. opener is targeting enthusiasts who have open stretches of uninhabited grassland that they need to get between. well, who doesn't? america's faa has approved the design, which has an autopilot function. in fact, it's even said that riders won't need to hold a pilot's licence.

it is one of several companies hoping to change how our skies look. earlier this year, we reported on uber‘s plans for sky taxis. with the help of bell, volocopter also sees autopilot taxis as the way forward. while chinese firm ehang is perfecting its own small drone—like craft to be either piloted by enthusiasts or self—flying taxis. this week, aston martin joined the growing list of companies with personal aviation in its sights, when it showed off its concept design, and rolls—royce pitched in with its own helicopter—like four—seater. so personal aviation is fast becoming a thing. opener hopes to be selling the blackfly from next year at the cost of an suv, and while that's not an exact figure, it seems that it would be within the price range of quite a few people in the us and elsewhere. now, just after the blackfly was announced, it was revealed that the man funding it all is google co—founder larry page.

now, this is a guy who seems to collect flying cars like they're cadillacs, because this week there was another big announcement from his fleet, this time in las vegas, and david lee travelled there in a boring old normal plane to check out the kitty hawk. this used to be a top—secret project, but not anymore. you are seeing the kitty hawk flyer in all its glory. so many people think this thing is the first step in a dream that we as humans have had for a long time — the dream of flying around in a flying car. this test flight flown by brittney lasted about nine minutes. right now, battery capacity allows for around 20 minutes, but the speed is limited to 6mph. not exactly fast travel, but you can cut them some slack. this is a flying car, after all.

i really don't have to think about a lot, other than letting the aircraft do its thing, and then putting in where i want to go. it's, like, that simple. that's the beauty of it, because you're about, you're flying, beautiful scenery, and ijust tell it where i want to go. i don't have to ever think about anything, the controls, so it's like, all you have to think about is how awesome it is to fly. kitty hawk has created this small hangout at the edge of a lake near las vegas. the location is important. it rarely rains, but it does get incredibly hot, and sometimes too windy to fly. the vehicle itself weighs less than 254 pounds, which is important, because it means the us aviation authority does not require a rider to have a pilot's licence. instead, kitty hawk puts them through a training regime that lasts just 90 minutes. first a simulator, then a real machine, strapped to the ground,

and then this fun ball—pool, with a serious purpose. this is where you practise getting out, if the flyer was to crash into the water. 0k. there's not much of an interior yet, but i imagine they'll be working on that. and here is the seatbelt. sadly, they wouldn't let me fly it myself, but i did at least have a chance to try it out for size. so i'm in, and then i have the controls here. these things, they are going to crash one day, right? have you had any issues? has one fallen out of the sky yet? we have not had a single — flying people, we have not had a single person go in the water. we do a ton of flight testing on this, and as we're always developing new things, we find bugs and we fix bugs. that is a huge core part of what we do. as is often the case

with new and exciting technology like this, it's not a question of whether they can do it, but whether we're going to be allowed to. in orderfor this flyer to be a reality in our daily commute, a lot of laws need to change to make it possible. but it's not the only way humans can get into the sky. dan simmons has been looking at another idea. that is so loud, but he does it with such grace. so the jetpack does 250 mph. it will go up to 500 metres, which is like 1,500 feet. it can fly for ten to 15 minutes, and it only weighs about 65 kilos. the main straight at goodwood is more familiar with fast cars

than jetpacks screaming past the stands, but as part of the future lab exhibition here, this man dreams of us all taking to the skies. this jetpack — as soon as the whole thing is off, you do want to clear all of that fuel and all of that baggage. it might be thejbii, it might be new, it might be extra—special in terms of the amount of power and agility it offers david as he goes flying around this circuit, but once he's done with it, just get the thing off. great landing, like it. tell me a bit about this. so jbii, six engines, this is our latest version. sojbii, this is the 11th iteration. so there have been ten before this. flew around statue of liberty injb9, that was two years ago, but it only had two engines. so you have some redundancy. you can lose one of these thrusters and you will stay up. and the computers have got to be robust. where are they? so that one is the starting one, that is on the throttle. and then there's a computer system

in here, that's our main computer, in this distribution system, and then each of the engines has their own computer. so there are six computers, then a master computer and throttle computer, so a lot of computers. how long has it taken to get to this stage with a jetpack? over 12 years. i started 12 years ago. and it's gone quickly, but it's been a hell of a process. and now you have got this, this is supposed to be in a sweet spot. is it ok if ijust sit here? i'm not going to take it up for a spin. but from this position, what am i looking at here? so on the pilot's side, you're looking at the left engine and the right engine, so you're looking at all the engine information on this side. so how hot they are, how fast they're spinning, what's the battery voltage, how much fuel you're using, et cetera, that is this side.

and when the batteries turn on, you see all of that information there. and those leds are basically — if it's green, everything is good. fly. if it's orange, probably you want to start thinking about it. if it's red, definitely land. jetpack aviation says the jbii would sell for north of $300,000, if the public could be trusted to be let loose with one, which is why it's not for sale, although the us military is looking into its use — as they have been with jetpacks for the last 50 years. the new design will wow crowds around the world, but it could also offer us the chance to have taster flight sessions in the nearfuture. you know, my idea is that young kids or 14—year—old kids, you know, my daughter included, should be able to fly in one of these on a tether system, in complete safety, and get a feel for the future of aviation. because it's not big aeroplanes anymore. it's about the capacity for individuals to move around the environment,

you know, go from their house to the shops, or their house — you know, to be able to take an autonomous flying vehicle from one place to another. it will happen. it's not to happen tomorrow, it will happen. how brilliant is that? that is it for this week. the full version is up for this week. the full version is up on my player. photos are up on twitter, too. thanks for watching and we will see you soon. the heat wave continues and if anything the temperatures are going to rise even further this week.

but not for everybody. i must trust the really high temperatures as far as this week is concerned will be concentrated across southeastern and eastern parts of the country. one of the other reasons why we are not getting an awful lot of rainfall is that these weather fronts what you can just about see here, these little streaks of cloud, are very weak. they keep feigning to reach us. ——they keep failing to reach us. there is cool air out in the atlantic ready to tuck in to northwestern parts of the country, but ultimately across more southern and eastern areas it is that he that is going to win back from the south. and this pattern is likely to be with is really for the whole week. starting with the evening and into tonight, in the northwest of the country, we have these very weak weather fronts that are moving and bringing a little bit of rainfall to western scotland and northern ireland and maybe there will be if you showers, ——ireland and maybe there will be a few showers, but the warmth is at this time coming in from the south. 20 degrees as the overnight low in london. it is still very warm in belfast.

i7 celsius is the starting temperature on monday. here are the weather fronts, behind me you see above my head this is the fresher air is the fresher air trying to tuck in, but the winds and much of the country, certainly england and wales, isn't that heat. temperatures will exceed 32 degrees on monday in some areas. scotland and northern ireland is in that fresher atlantic air. it is still very warm in aberdeen, temperatures will probably get up to around 2a degrees. these weather fronts really don't make much progress. they kind of stall around out here. this is the pattern on tuesday itself. you can see just about one weather front there. fronts, they really are very, very weak. it is the cool air that is trying to come in with those weather fronts again on tuesday. but the heat and keeps on winning. much of england and wales in that hot air, but particularly hot across the east, east anglia, the southeast and part of the midlands, too. temperatures tuesday in some spots could get up to 32, perhaps 33 degrees. compare that to the much fresher conditions in belfast and

glasgow around 20 celsius. look at that. it looks like we will keep the 30s in the south. right until the end of the week. perhaps cooling off a little bit into the weekend. that is it for me. bye— bye. this is bbc news. the headlines at 8pm. the brexit secretary says he's confident the uk won't crash out of the eu without a deal. dominic raab says he believes an agreement is possible within months, if brussels shows ambition. the energy that were going to bring to these negotiations, we can get a deal done and october. hundreds of volunteers from syria's civil defence force, known as the white helmets are rescued from a war zone in southern syria. they are safely in jordan. a three—year—old boy who was seriously injured in an acid attack in worcester has been discharged from hospital. police want to speak to three men, following the attack at a shop in the city yesterday afternoon.

we got a 39—year—old man under arrest two is helping us with their enquiries at the moment but