IT BEGAN ON A WING AND A PRAYER – so, DOES SLOVAKIA’S FLYING CAR STILL HAVE A FUTURE?
Years ago I was asked to write something about Slovakia’s dream machine … a prototype flying car.
I loved it, but I worried I was being a bit of an Icarus about it all, blinded by the light, waxing lyrical. I certainly didn’t want to support a car crash in the sky!
Then it completed a 35-minute 80K flight between airports in Nitra and Bratislava.
It was suddenly a story about a brave new world and set to fly up the news agendas.
And, a few weeks ago, the aircar received the Certificate of Airworthiness from the Slovak Transport Authority after completing 70 hours of rigorous flight testing.
Brilliant!
Then rumours and mixed facts began to confuse the issue… some said the company couldn’t get finance etc.
Now AeroMobil management, has come back saying the flying vehicle project remains achievable.
So, let’s have an affectionate look at the hybrid car-aircraft and what has been achieved over the decade and a half of its existence:
The vehicle has a BMW petrol engine which you can fill up at the pumps.
Its creator, Prof Stefan Klein, 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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