At the Pioneers Festival in Vienna, a
Slovakian startup called AeroMobil unveiled the thing that we have all
been dreaming about since we saw that first episode of the Jetsons while
still wearing diapers: The first flying car. It’s here. It’s real. And it’s spectacular.
According to Venturebeat, the company
took the wraps off AeroMobil 3.0, the latest iteration of its flying car
that has been in development for almost 25 years.
“We believe personal transportation is
about to change forever,” said AeroMobil chief executive Juraj Vaculik
at a press conference. “We think it’s time to make transportation more
emotional and more personal.”
The car was designed by Stefan Klein,
founder and head of the Department of Transport Design at the Academy of
Fine Arts in Slovakia. Klein had been tinkering with the concept as far
back as 1989.
The car needs very little runway to take
off, and it can be refueled at any standard gas station when the wings
are retracted. AeroMobil believes it will be attractive for countries
that don’t have billions of dollars to spend building a modern
transportation infrastructure.
The body is built from advanced
composite materials that keep it lightweight but also durable. Under the
hood, it has autopilot and an advanced parachute deployment system. The
cockpit can carry two people, and in the air the flying car can reach
top speeds of 200 km/h. It has a 27-foot wingspan and is 19.7 feet long. No price tag yet
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