We’ve seen car and boat hybrids, boat and plane hybrids, and now we finally have a car and plane hybrid. Yes, that’s right, flying cars are now a reality.
AirCar makes first flight between cities
The flying car in question is Klein Vision’s AirCar. The company describes it as a “dual-mode car aircraft vehicle.”
Klein Vision announced in a press release that the AirCar made its 142nd successful landing on June 28. But this flight was a special one because it was the first trip the aircraft had made between cities.
The AirCar made the 35-minute flight from the airport in Nitra to the airport at Bratislava in Slovakia.
The prototype vehicle is equipped with a BMW 160 horsepower (120 kW) engine. It uses a fixed propellor and ballistic parachute during flight.
So far during testing, the AirCar has reached 8200 feet and a cruising speed of 190 km/h. It’s clocked 40 flight hours and has a range of approximately 1000 km.
Once its flight is complete, the AirCar can transition from plane to vehicle by collapsing its wings, which fold into the sides of its frame. It can then drive on the road like a normal car.
According to BBC News, it only takes 2 minutes and 15 seconds to transform from plane to car. Next-level convertible if there ever was one.
The AirCar is powered by petrol, so, unlike some of the eVTOLs that are in development right now, it doesn’t offer a green solution just yet.
Creator, Professor Stefan Klein, piloted the vehicle during its flight. The AirCar has taken about two years of development and this was a major milestone for the flying car.
“AirCar is no longer just a proof of concept,” Anton Zajac, co-founder of Klein Vision said in a statement. “It has turned science fiction into a reality.”
Just last week we saw the reality of flying racing cars zipping around a desert in Australia. This latest aerial vehicle just proves we really are living in the future.