Although we are far from developing the Blade Runner type of flying car, we are getting closer to mass production of different vehicles. A few days ago, “Air Car” (that was previously mentioned on this blog), designed by Štefan Klein, was certified to fly after passing tests in Slovakia.
The vehicle was awarded its certificate after completing the tests regarding European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) standards. Within 70 hours of rigorous flight testing, the tests included the full range of flight and performance manoeuvres and more than 200 take-offs and landings. AirCar’s developers said its take-off and landing procedures were achieved even without the pilot’s need to touch the flight controls.
Although the product is planned to be mass-produced, not everyone will be able to drive it. Obviously, a pilot license will be required to fly the hybrid vehicle, and you will be able to fly only from airport to airport.
CNN states that Kyriakos Kourousis, chair of the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Airworthiness & Maintenance Specialist Group, told them that “this is not the first time that similar types of vehicles have been certified.”. Therefore, I am curious if this product will appeal to potential customers. Personally, I do not see AirCar as a revolutionary vehicle, but certainly, this technology is a significant step into the next generation of transportation. And I would not be surprised if Elon Musk would abandon digging tunnels to avoid traffic to instead pursue this kind of hybrid air and land solution.
Sources:
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/25/business/flying-car-aircar-dual-mode-vehicle-intl-scli/index.html
Interesting idea with some exciting future for sure. Though I don’t believe you will be able to land it and take it off whenever and wherever you want, which is big disadvantage. Moreover, this thing would need a license from local airports plus special time slots to take it off in the first place. It’s not like that airports are abandoned. There’re millions launching every day, and to be honest if even a hundred people started to use these cars it would destabilize the air traffic control. And no, Elon won’t help. He has already a very bad relationship with authorities, mainly for not paying taxes and his hypocrisy. Therefore I cannot see him upending the way you transport. I know that his ideas are fun and all, but his digging endeavor is nothing but boring and non-functional version of subway.
Mentioning Elon was rather sarcastic, as he tend to explore different complicated technologies to revolutionize transport. I fully agree with you regarding these inconveniences you have mentioned and find it hard to imagine the target audience of this kind of product, at least nowadays. Nevertheless, this could be the beginning of normalizing this kind of vehicles, only the future will tell.
As a fan of motorsports , I wonder what category of motorsport will these vehicles develop into ? We could see some very interesting racing formats and rules that compliment these groundbreaking beauties.
This news cannot but rejoice. Flying cars that everyone dreamed about in childhood are becoming a reality. And yet, I think this product will face a lot of problems. Take, for example, birds and bad weather, it is not clear how such a machine will behave under such conditions. And they also need to get a bunch of permits in different countries, I don’t think this product will be successful, but time will tell.
More of these type of vehicles are going to be on the market in the future for sure! childhood dreams are becoming a reality slowly. It reminds me of the Pyro from GTA;
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/gta/images/4/4e/Pyro_%28V%29.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20171025163658&path-prefix=pl