Watch: Flying car completes historic first inter-city flight
The vehicle called AirCar is both capable of flying when needed as well as driving on the road.
The historic flight was piloted by Stefan Klein, founder and CEO of R&D company Klein Vision, which has made the prototype hybrid car-plane.
The maiden inter-city flight of AirCar started from the Nitra international airport in Slovakia. Klein took off from the runway and completed a 35-minute flight to Bratislava. Landing at the city airport, he drove the AirCar to the city downtown at a distance of three minutes.
Watch the flying car’s incredible journey here:
The AirCar prototype took shape after 20 years of hard work by Klein. The AirCar has undergone over 140 test flights.
This week’s inter-city flight was the “most ambitious effort” till date.
The AirCar – Details and Specs
The AirCar can be turned into an aircraft by pushing a single button. It deploys wings and a tail, remodifying the aerodynamics. The process takes a mere 135 seconds.
Powered by a BMW petrol engine, AirCar can achieve a maximum cruising speed of 190 kilometres per hour and has flown up to 8,200 feet with its fixed-propeller system.
Klein aims to upgrade the top speed to 300 kilometres per hour and the endurance to a flight distance of 1,000 km on a single fuel tank top-up.
In a release from the company, Klein said, “This flight starts a new era of dual-transportation vehicles. It opens a new category of transportation and returns the freedom originally attributed to cars back to the individual.”