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BMW Engine-powered Flying Car AirCar Completes 35-Min Test Flight Between Airports
BMW engine-powered flying Car AirCar completes historic 35-minutes test flight between two international airports.
The AirCar takes just two minutes and 15 seconds to transform from car into aircraft.
Unlike drone-taxi that can take off and land vertically, AirCar requires a runway to take off and land.
A prototype flying car, AirCar, with a cruising speed of 170km/h on Monday completed a 35-minute flight between international airports in Nitra and Bratislava, Slovakia.
The hybrid car-aircraft was driven by its creator Prof Klein between the two international airports and watched by invited reporters. Klein described the experience as “normal” and “very pleasant”.
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Klein said AirCar could fly about 1,000km (600 miles) at a height of 8,200ft (2,500m). The BMW engine-powered Car-aircraft, which runs on regular petrol-pump fuel, had clocked up 40 hours in the air so far.
Klein Vision, the company behind AirCar, says it takes just two minutes and 15 seconds to transform from car into aircraft. It can revert back to car by folding down its narrow wings along the sides of the car.
But unlike drone-taxi prototypes that can take off and land vertically, the AirCar requires a runway to take off and land.
Klein Vision says the prototype took about two years to develop and cost “less than 2m euros (£1.7m) in investment. This prototype can carry two people with a combined weight limit of 200kg.
Klein Vision believes the project be a huge success if the company could attract even a small percentage of global airline or taxi sales.
“There are about 40,000 orders of aircraft in the United States alone,” he said.
“And if we convert 5% of those, to change the aircraft for the flying car – we have a huge market.”
