Ever dreamt of a car that could fly and take you away from horrendous traffic jams on the streets? Well, flying cars are set to be a reality pretty soon, thanks to Mr Stefan Klein, who invested 20 years on the project. After working rigorously for years, Mr Klein - the chief engineer and co-founder of AeroMobil - has come up with a prototype called the AeroMobil 2.5. After successfully testing the AeroMobil 2.5 prototype for take-off, flight and landing, the company will unveil the world’s first production ready flying car, the AeroMobil 3.0, on October 29, 2014 at the Pioneers Festival in Austria.
AeroMobil has been working on the flying car concept since 1990, and according to the company, its first model looked quite bizarre and was impractical for regular use. This, the company says, was “a singal to improve the concept of the flying car in a way to become an integral part of the regular road traffic.”
Powering the AeroMobil 3.0 is a Rotax 912 engine that has a range of 700 Kms while flying and 875 kms on road. Interestingly, the flying car has been claimed to consume 15 litres per hour for flying, and 12.5Km/l while driving. The claimed top-speed of the car is 200Km/h in air and 160Km/h on road, whereas the take-off speed is 130Km/h.
For the curious cats out there, the wings fold into the rear seat behind the driver during car mode. That said, the company feels that the design of the car still needs work, so more improvements will be made to the car in order to make it perfectly suitable for both, flying in the air and driving on the road.
“First Production Ready Flying Car” ? What a crock. Flying cars have been around since the 50s, and none have succeeded.
And if they did, imagine the typical expressway driver of today in an aircraft! makes you shudder. And remember, if you have a mechanical problem, you can’t pull over to the side of the road, you crash.
Just the insurance and regulatory issues will keep this off the road and out of the air for many, many years to come. Just because it can be built, doesn’t mean it will take off so to speak.
Its a shame how unlikely it is that it will be available. Imagine how much shorter long trips would be because you could straight shot to your destination. Problem is towers, air space, air ports. You have to learn a heck of a lot before you can safely fly and navigate the skies. My buddy just became a pilot.
This dream has been around since 1948…Building the vehicle is the easy part…meeting government safety, licensing and air-traffic requirements is almost impossible…
I remember reading in Popular science /or Mechanic’s …way back when I was a kid in the 1960s that by the year 2000 we all would be flying to work.
Back then the roads were not so busy and I…as a kid thought it was possible.
I agree with @BillRussell that the expressways would be scary to drive if all those nuts out there could just launch themselves to pass and get “one more car ahead”. It would look like a leapfrog contest on the road.
That would be good if we also could mount a couple of 50cals on the hood and take out the idiots as they try to fly past the traffic.
Ratatatatatatatat…that’ll teach them to not use their directional.
I’ve gotta agree, this has been talked about since I was a kid 60 years ago. And add hydro cars, electric cars, self driving cars, etc. Some stuff maybe practical some not. Now think of this, if you’ve got 50,000 flying cars all trying to get into the city at the same time, plus drone traffic, it could get pretty crowded up there and might be faster to go surface transport.
and take you away from horrendous traffic jams on the streets?
NOPE, wont happen.
Drive from home to the airport for takeoff to the airport close to work and then drive to work.
Then drive to airport from work to airport close to home just so you can drive home.
Cool invention but a total waste of time.
A better invention would be a microwave that stopped automatically when the popcorn stopped popping so you don’t stink up the whole house.
This is a scam if I ever saw one.
It’s just another way for them to sell more adult diapers.
You think it’s bad now with your 19 year old texting and driving.
Every Aerocare must be required to have a well stocked cart , pushed by a cute stewardess to keep us old fuds well lubed for the trip home each evening.
“Become an integral part of the regular road traffic” is a pretty optimistic statement.
Cool gimmick, but nothing more. If they’re going to make a video then show the aerocar attaining enough altitude to clear a medium height tree at least and show how it banks in a turn.
Those wings look a bit iffy to me as far as handling goes.
Don’t forget the difficulty that UAVs have now. Getting them cleared for routine flight isn’t happening because they are a hazard to helicopters and other low flying traffic. Adding more low flying objects will make the skies ever more difficult to navigate. Also, don’t forget the fallout zone beneath the midair collisions. The Jetson life is not close.
From an interview with Orville and Wilbur Wright in 1910:
In that same interview, Carews asked the Wright brothers about
the future of flight. She asked if planes would ever be used to trans-
port people in large numbers, as trains did. “No,” said Wilbur. “That
would be too expensive.” Asked if planes would ever carry freight,
he again replied “No.”
Asked about the airplane’s use in war, Wilbur said they’d be
used for scouting, but never for transporting troops.
Instead, the Wright brothers imagined airplanes becoming “au-
tomobiles of the air.” Orville imagined “stations in every town for
landing a launching of flying machines and the supply of gasoline.”
Trying to produce a vehicle that both flys and drives just means you wind up with a vehicle that does a lousy job of both! For the money, you’d be better served to buy both a car and a small airplane. Too many design compromises for it to work.
Some forms of synergy are just bad ideas from the start. Remember SNL’s “It’s a dessert topping! No, it’s a floor wax!” skit? Flying cars are kinda like that.
@ meanjoe75fan
I agree, it kind of reminds me of a comment someone made about the Kawasaki KLR650 “dual sport” motorcycle.
“Off road, it feels like a street bike, on the highway, it feels like a dirt bike.”