It runs on regular petrol-pump fuel and burns 18 litres per hour when airborne. It is also an outcome of excellent engineering and knowledge,” added Sarh.ĪirCar boasts a BMW engine and comes with a ballistic parachute. “The automated transition from a road vehicle into an air vehicle and vice versa is not only the result of pioneering enthusiasm, innovative spirit and courage. His latest version is the pinnacle achievement in the category,” Sarh said after AirCar’s most recent flight tests. “Professor Stefan Klein is the world leader in the development of user-friendly flying cars. The greatest challenge for such businesses is getting their vehicles certified for both air and road travel, a hurdle AirCar has just cleared.Īccording to Branko Sarh, senior technical fellow at Boeing, AirCar is now the global front-runner in the race.
With that much potentially at stake, a number of companies around the world are jockeying for a share of the market. In 2019, US financial services company Morgan Stanley estimated that the budding sector could be worth 1.5 trillion US dollars by 2040. There are many who believe flying cars will help unclog existing infrastructures in the long run by taking mass transport to a brand new level. AirCar is to be put on the market for commercial distribution within the next 12 months. Much at stakeĪccording to the BBC, Klein Vision is planning a test flight between Paris and London in the near future. AirCar expands those frontiers by taking us into the next dimension, where the road meets the sky,” adds Anton Zajac, the project’s co-founder and chief advisor. “50 years ago, the car was the epitome of freedom. “This is an official and final confirmation of our ability to change mid-distance travel forever.” “The certification opens the door for mass production of very efficient flying cars,” says Stefan Klein, AirCar’s inventor as well as test pilot. On top of a driving licence, the pilot is only required to obtain a sport pilot certificate to be able to operate the flying car.
Upon landing, at a click of a button the aircraft transforms into a sports car in two minutes and 15 seconds, folding its wings along its sides.ĪirCar’s freshly-minted licence to fly means that its pilot can now ask air traffic control for clearance to take off or land, just like in the case of any other aircraft. The car-aircraft hybrid reportedly impressed the civil aviation authorities with its stability throughout the flight manoeuvres, which included challenging 45-degree turns.ĭeveloped by Slovak company Klein Vision, AirCar brings to mind scenes from science-fiction blockbusters like Blade Runner or the Back to the Future trilogy. The AirCar prototype performed over 200 take-offs and landings in fully automatic mode, without the pilot ever needing to touch the flight controls. The tests were compatible with European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) standards. Late in January, AirCar, a dual-mode car-aircraft vehicle, was issued an official Certificate of Airworthiness by the Slovak Transport Authority, following the successful completion of 70 hours of rigorous flight testing. With the Slovak-made AirCar now officially certified to fly, cars in the sky are finally poised to leave the sci-fi realm and enter the commercial market.
0 kommentar(er)
