The AirCar made a successful first flight -
Geeko
There are many flying car projects and not all are the same.
While many companies specializing in mobility focus mainly on vertical take-off and landing vehicles (VTOLs), others are working on a concept of a flying car in the proper sense.
This is particularly the case of the Slovak company Klein Vision, whose AirCar prototype has just completed its first successful flight.
Klein Vision is not at its first attempt, its founder Stefan Klein has been working on various prototypes of flying cars for almost twenty years.
A job that paid off since he managed to get his AirCar off the ground, his car that turns into a plane "in one click".
The aircraft made two successful takeoffs and landings and flew for some time at an altitude of 450 meters.
The AirCar made a successful first flight - Geeko
It is indeed question of a car-plane since the AirCar takes the form of a motorized vehicle with four wheels, but this one has a spoiler at the rear, as well as two retractable wings on the sides which can deploy to transform the vehicle into an airplane.
According to the company, the transformation takes less than three minutes.
Avoid tolls
If the AirCar was mainly imagined as an object of leisure, nothing prevents to decline it in taxi, indicates the company.
The latter also plans to increase the number of places inside the vehicle which is, for the moment, two in number.
Klein Vision is also studying the question of developing an amphibious version.
The first successful flight of the AirCar is in itself a small feat and demonstrates the feasibility of Klein Vision's project, even if we do not know all the technical specifics of the device.
The one-tonne machine is powered by a 1.6-liter BMW engine and has an effective power of 140 hp.
Its range is estimated at 1,000 km and its flight consumption of 18 liters per hour.
Finally, the device can reach a speed of 200 km / h.
As for its price, the company does not say anything about it, but one can easily imagine that the device is reserved for a wealthy clientele.
The AirCar made a successful first flight - Geeko
This is obviously not the first time that a flying car has taken off.
For a long time now, this concept has been the fantasy of inventors and other enthusiasts of flying devices, but very few prototypes have really managed to take off.
In the case of aircraft cars in the proper sense, the need for a runway to leave the ground is a major constraint.
We should not see them in the streets of big cities anytime soon, unlike VTOL vehicles whose particularity is precisely to be able to fly and land vertically, without momentum.
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