It began on a wing and a prayer. Now Slovakia’s flying car has taken off, just like Society editor predicted…

Two years ago I was asked to write something about Slovakia’s dream machine .. a prototype flying car.

I loved it, but worried I was being a bit of an Icarus about it all. I waxed lyrical anyway!

And now it has just completed a 35-minute 80K flight between airports in Nitra and Bratislava.

The hybrid car-aircraft, AirCar, has a BMW petrol engine which you can fill up at the pumps.

Its creator, Prof Stefan Klein, who I interviewed in 2019, said it could fly about 1,000km (600 miles), at a height of 8,200ft (2,500m), and has completed 40 hours in the air so far.

And it only takes two minutes and 15 seconds to transform it from car into a plane!

Its wings fold down along the sides of the car.

Prof Klein said the vehicle reached a cruising speed of 170km/h and carry two people. At the moment it requires a runway though.

Flying cars are finally the way forward – or the way up in reality.

In 2019, consultant company Morgan Stanley predicted the sector could be worth $1.5trillion (£1tn) by 2040.

However, AirCar, Klein Vision, says the prototype has cost “less than 2m euros” (£1.7m).

Dr Stephen Wright, senior research fellow in avionics and aircraft, at the University of the West of England, described the AirCar as “the lovechild of a Bugatti Veyron and a Cesna 172”.

And he did not think the vehicle would be particularly loud or uneconomical in terms of fuel costs, compared with other aircraft.

And he revealed how 40 people from eight countries, including the UK, had worked hard on it, making it another international project emanating from the Little Big Country. 

But Aeromobil are not alone and at least 20 companies are on working flying machines.

Uber for instance is working to create an aerial taxi service in Dallas, Fort Worth, Los Angeles, and Dubai. Uber wants a plane-helicopter hybrid with fixed wings and tilt prop-rotors. The vehicles will take passengers from rooftop to rooftop.

Terrafugia Inc. in the US, also has a prototype flying and it has completed its first flight,

And Dr Paul Moller, of Davis, California, has spent 40 years developing a flying car that can be mass produced. He built his first one in 1967 in his garage.

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