While " Back To The Future"may have been the trigger for many the great unwashed ’s dreams of owning a fly car , the idea has in reality been swim around the mind of man since not long after cars became widely useable at the beginning of the 20thcentury . design for such vehicles began appearing as early as1923 , albeit they were n’t predict to collide with the roads until the ‘ 70s . Henry Ford evenwarnedthat a hybrid aeroplane and railcar was coming back in 1940 . And even though we have been teased over and over again with image and promise ( thank youTerrafugiafor repeatedly getting our hopes up ) , flying cars are still not a reality for consumers .
But excitement was renew once again last twelvemonth when Slovakian companyAeroMobiltantalized us with their prototype machine / plane hybrid , the AeroMobil 3.0 , which was unveiled at the Pioneers Festival in Vienna . In their promo video , you may see the fomite effortlessly transform from a futuristic - calculate roadster into a satiny aircraft at the touch of a button , and then swimmingly take to the skies from a Gunter Wilhelm Grass runway .
At the time , AeroMobil was carefulnot to make any promisesabout when the product could reach the market , admit that there was still a good deal forwards of them . Now , just four months on , the company has perhaps specify themselves up for some optic - trilled and“Yeah yeah ” ’s with the challenging announcement that the fomite could go from epitome to consumer vehicle within justtwo years .
contribute that we have been anticipate standardized timeframes before , multitude have a right hand to be doubting . Matt Novak fromPaleofuture , for example , has say he will “ Literally use up the Sun ” if it is released by 2017 . But AeroMobil Centennial State - founder and CEO Juraj Vaculik is confident that it can be attain , and spoke about the company ’s progression and ambitions recently at South by Southwest 2015 . He even went on to raise some more brow by talk about AeroMobil ’s dreams of a second model , which would befully self-governing . Yes , a self - fly car .
According toAeroMobil , the first commercially usable model will be a two - seater capable of pass speeds of close to 100 mph ( 160 km / h ) as a car , and 125 mph as a plane ( 200 klick / h ) . It will run on gasoline rather than kerosene so it can be filled up at veritable gas stations , and it ’s small enough to agree into survive substructure and garage and thus wo n’t expect a hangar . What ’s more , it can land on short strips of grass , so additional airports wo n’t be required . Instead , Vaculik argues , lanes could be added on to existing highways .
AeroMobil
But AeroMobil still has a long to - do leaning before their promised two eld is up . They require to get detention of enough immediate payment to start quite a little producing the thing , althoughVaculik saysthe company has bread and butter from the EU . There is also the issue that AeroMobil has yet to put on regulative approval for the roadster . They also have some technical hurdle to overcome , such as keeping the fomite light enough for takeoff but stalwart enough to meet prophylactic requirements . If they superintend to beat all these boxes , the vehicle could be yours in a couple of years , should you have a fun pilot license and a sparefew hundred thousand dollars .
[ ViaAeroMobil , PopSci , Engadget , PaleofutureandMashable ]
