A flying car prototype has completed a 35-minute test flight between two international airports in Nitra and Bratislava, Slovakia. The AirCar, a flying car powered by a BMW engine, is a hybrid car-aircraft that runs on regular petrol. Prof Stefan Klein, its creator, says it could fly about 1,000 km at a height of 8,200 ft and also that it had clocked up 40 hours in the air so far. The AirCar takes about two minutes and 15 seconds to convert into an aircraft.
Compared to a lot of flying cars currently in the testing stage, the AirCar looks more of what we’d expected of the flying car concept. When on the ground and wing folded, it does almost look like a standard car with a big spoiler.
The narrow wings of the AirCar fold along the sides of it. Prof Klein drove it straight off the runway and into the town after the test flight as the invited reporters watched.
The vehicle can carry two people with a combined weight limit of 200 kg. During the test, the vehicle reached a cruising speed of 170 km/h.
Unlike drone-taxi prototypes, however, the AirCar cannot take off or land vertically and requires a runway.
Also read: Hyundai, GM ‘serious’ about flying car taxis by 2025, commercialisation by 2030
Considered a visionary landmark of the future, there is substantial interest in the field and high expectations for the market which is in the sights of some notable manufacturers like Hyundai as well. The South Korean manufacturer, in fact, recently made a statement on its seriousness about developing a flying car.
In 2019, consultant company Morgan Stanley predicted the sector could be worth $1.5trillion (£1tn) by 2040.
Klein Vision, the company behind AirCar, states that it took them about two years to develop it for “less than EUR 2 million” in investment. The company already has orders in the thousands for the AirCar in the US.
