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AirCar completes first ever intercity flight
Written by Thembani Magazi – July 14, 2021
Edited by Asaf Kedem
The future is now. We at Auto Trendy haven’t grown tired of asserting this self-evident truth. Flying cars are no longer something out of science fiction but rather they have become a true scientific marvel and rightly so. That being said, the world’s first prototype flying car, AirCar, has completed a 35 minute airborne journey between international airports in Nitra and Bratislava, Slovakia.
The craft, like most genius things in automotive, is powered by a BMW engine and runs on regular car fuel from the petrol station. It takes two minutes and 15 seconds to transform the car into a flying machine capable of carrying two people with a combined weight limit of 200kg. According to its creators the vehicle has an effective range of 1000km at a height of 2500m and has clocked in around 40 hours of flight thus far. During the test flight the vehicle reached a cruising speed of 170km/h.
As for the design of the craft it looks really cool with the prototype having narrow wings that fold along the sides of the car. It’s been described by some as “the lovechild of a Bugatti Veyron and a Cesna 172” and for good reason, with its sporty aesthetic and flying capability it’s a model that’s sure to turn a lot of heads wherever it goes.
The company behind the AirCar, Klein Vision, has been developing the car for about two years and it has set them back just shy of 2 million euros in investment. Investors in Klein Vision say if the company could attract even a small percentage of global airline or taxi sales, the project will be massively successful. It’s a potentially huge market.
Auto Trendy’s take:
It doesn’t seem like eVTOLs (electrical vertical take-off and landing) are the only direction to go in when it comes to realising flying cars (sorry Airspeeder!). Klein Vision and their brainchild AirCar are showing how plausible it can be to use the traditional runway and with a combustion engine vehicle to boot. It’s bound to be a fascinating field to keep an eye on in the coming years and we expect more and more companies trying their hand at building the next functional and safe flying car. The possibilities are seemingly endless and we anticipate each new design. When it comes to the automotive industry nowadays it seems the sky truly is the limit!
