With an electric engine that “completely reimagines” how magnetics work, a Fort Worth racing team is looking to take to the skies.
Mobius Air is set to become the first team in the U.S. and all of the Americas to take part in the newly created Air Race E league, an electric-only Formula 1 air racing series. And in addition to taking home the title and breaking records, the team is also looking to showcase the technology behind it, which team founder and president Carl Copeland says has the potential to change lives.
“We’re really trying to capitalize on being America’s Team just like the Dallas Cowboys are America’s Team,” Copeland told NTX Inno.
Wingtip-to-wingtip, Air Race E planes race across some of the hottest places on earth, where the air is thinner, allowing pilots to race at 200+ MPH only 10 meters above the ground. In the cockpit of Mobius’ craft, called the Voltaire, is Philip Goforth, who brings with him a deep background in air racing as a founder of the Flyboz Race Camp training organization, builder of aircraft and president of the International Formula 1 Pylon Air Racing League. And Goforth is helping Mobius finish building its plane, which Copeland set to take flight in late spring or early summer.
“We think we have a distinct advantage just in that,” Copeland said. “These people are insane by the way… they’re flying go carts.”
While there are a number of other teams looking to join the Air Race E League, there are only five official teams, with four of them based in Europe. The launch of the league, which will feature eight races in different parts of the world, was delayed due to the pandemic. The first race was set to take place this October but has since been pushed back to Q2 of 2022. However, Mobius will get to showcase its abilities at a qualifying round next year.
And though flying a Formula 1 racing aircraft is a feat in itself, Copeland said Mobius has been invited to enter the sporting class of air racing with its engine, something the league had to alter the rules for to allow, which will put Mobius up against a faster, more powerful class of aircraft. And the team also has plans to use its electric engine to power vehicles in other motorsports, including a Baja racing team and a Bonneville Salt Flats racing team.
“The real point of Mobius is not only to demonstrate our technologies to the world… but really to use the spirit of competition to drive that technology forward and continue to iterate in every aspect of power and motion and flight,” Copeland said.
Winning is a priority for the team but so is showcasing the technology behind it. And it was developed by Copeland’s company MμZ Motion, who holds about 30 international patents on it.
“One of the reasons this race team is so important to us is because we get to demonstrate the technology in the air. And if we can move it through the air and beat everyone, then we can move everything else too, from scooters to trucks to trains,” Copeland said. “I grew up in the generation where we were watching all these sci fi shows, just really good, wholesome shows, where people are really wanting to do good things… and so the finish line we want to cross is the one where we move humanity forward and we change the world for the better with pragmatic technology.”
Founded in 2018, MμZ is a motions and control company focused on aerospace and robotics, fields where issues like weight and size are important factors. Copeland said what sets MμZ’s engine apart is its magnetics. It is fragmented and broken up into small, closed loops, eliminating the need for much of the metal used in other engines and acting more like a series of transformers. Copeland said the engines doesn’t need metal, and besides wiring components, can be made of 3D-printed material or even paper.
“We are literally the first new thing since Nicola Tesla,” Copeland said. “Most people are building upon the foundation that other people have done, and they’re trying to add or improve to it. What I’ve done is completely reimagine how the magnetics work.”
Copeland said pitching his friends and family investors on starting Mobius wasn’t easy but after he had heard about Air Race E while in Austin attending the MassChallenge accelerator program, he couldn’t let the idea go. Eventually he decided it was “the most genius idea” he’d had. He said Mobius allows MμZ to bypass certain federal regulations to showcases the engine’s aerobatic abilities. And the fact that the company gets to see its tech set records and milestones doesn’t hurt, Copeland said.
“Everything we do from this day forward is a world’s first. If I crash this plane in a ditch, it’s still a world’s first,” Copeland said. “Look at how short the Wright Brothers’ first flight was but it changed everything
Like with the different racing capabilities Mobius presents, Copeland also has lofty plans for MμZ. By showing off the company’s capabilities, he hopes to target aerospace and robotics, which allows for short production runs at high margins, eventually allowing MμZ to offer its technology cheaply to other markets. From there, Copeland sees MμZ’s technology helping to create cheaper energy across the globe, powering industries and entire economies.
To help meet those goals, on the Mobius side Copeland is looking for sponsors and partners to help with engineering and funding. It also comes with some perks like VIP access to upcoming races. And on the MμZ side of things, Copeland said he is seeking financial partners for an upcoming Seed round.
“If you solve power, you can solve water and then you can solve agriculture, and at that point you’ve meet all of the most pressing needs that any human has,” Copeland said. “Those are our actual global goals, to iterate these technologies that move humanity forward and change the world.”
