“Man will not fly for 50 years” – Wilbur Wright, 1901.
“A combination of airplane and motorcar is coming. You may smile, but it will come.” – Henry Ford, 1940.
Needless to say, one of these opinions was far off (the Wright brothers flew in 1903) while one of these opinions may not technically be incorrect … but is making many impatient.
Yet the AeroMobil 3.0 made noise within the flying car industry on Wednesday, when it was unveiled at the Vienna Pioneers Festival in Austria.
The vehicle has been in development for 25 years, and has now achieved its maiden flight. Chief executive Juraj Vaculik calls it “the most advanced flying car yet” that will free us from “traffic jam prison” and “airport prison.”
All you need in order to own an AeroMobil 3.0 of your own is $200,000-$300,000 and a pilot’s license.
The AeroMobil features wings that can fold in behind the cabin, allowing it to be driven down the road, parked in a regular parking spot and filled up at a local gas station. A tank of gas will be able to get 430 miles on the road. It requires a 650-foot strip for takeoff and 165-foot strip for landing and can reach speeds of 120 mph in the air.
Critics note that a flying car in today’s world may be impractical given our highly developed transportation infrastructure, but Vaculik notes, “there are still a lot of countries where there is not an infrastructure,” citing the fact that only 3 percent of the world’s roads are paved.
The AeroMobil is not quite ready for production just yet, which means it may have some catching up to do considering you can already purchase your own PAL-V One flying car for $395,000.
