{"id":4408,"date":"2021-07-26T11:23:17","date_gmt":"2021-07-26T10:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scrapcarnetwork.org\/news\/?p=4408"},"modified":"2025-02-26T18:07:07","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T18:07:07","slug":"flying-car-officially-completes-its-maiden-intercity-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scrapcarnetwork.org\/news\/flying-car-officially-completes-its-maiden-intercity-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"Flying car officially completes its maiden intercity flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

For decades now, flying cars have been seen as one of the natural evolutions of our mode of personal transport. Indeed, the mere sight of them is often used as a shorthand for a technologically advanced society in almost any sci-fi film you care to mention. But now they\u2019re closer to being a reality than ever, and as a case in point, you need look no further than aptly named AirCar, the flying car that\u2019s just completed its first intercity flight over in Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n

As you\u2019d expect, it\u2019s gained quite a lot of media attention, not least because it opens up scores of possibilities. Here\u2019s one; if your vehicle was capable of flying, how much more difficult would the process be once you decided – I need to scrap my car?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

AirCar\u2019s founders set their ambitions sky-high<\/h2>\n

Considered in isolation, it\u2019s safe to say that AirCar is quite an impressive vehicle. With foldable wings and an extendable tail, it can change from a ground-based car to a skybound vehicle in two minutes fifteen seconds – quite a nippy little transformation.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s already clocked up 40 hours in the air, and this latest trip constitutes its 142nd landing. It took off from Nitra airport in Slovakia, and landed in Bratislava about 35 minutes later, before completing the final leg of its journey by road. During the trip it managed to reach a height of about 2500m, and its creator said that it\u2019s capable of going for much greater distances of around 600 miles.<\/p>\n

All that\u2019s pretty stellar for a car that\u2019s equipped with a humble BMW engine of around 160HP, and still runs on petrol-pump fuel.<\/p>\n

\"Cars<\/p>\n

So, when will we be seeing these on the roads?<\/h2>\n

Well, that\u2019s quite the question. Right now, it\u2019s difficult to say.<\/p>\n

The flying car industry has long been heralded as one of the greatest impending revolutions in global transport – Morgan Stanley thinks that the flying car sector could be worth $1.5 trillion by 2040.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that people think there\u2019s a lot of money in it – Klein Vision, the company that built the AirCar, said that this prototype took less than \u20ac1.7 million to build. Which, let\u2019s be honest, is a bit more than most of us have kicking around down the back of our couch cushions at home. The company is optimistic about the volume of its orders, with a spokesman saying they already have 40,000 in the US alone. But at a cost of millions (at best, hundreds of thousands) for each car, it\u2019s likely to remain a luxury item for the uber-rich for the next few years at the very least.<\/p>\n

Significantly, the co-founder of the company has said that the AirCar \u201chandles like a Cessna\u201d or similarly-sized small aircraft, and doesn\u2019t require the pilot to undergo any additional training. Hmm\u2026 the word \u2018additional\u2019 is certainly doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence. Given all that, it\u2019s fair to infer that the AirCar will require the person in the driver\u2019s seat to hold their own pilot\u2019s licence, something which is still pretty far out of reach for most of the general population currently.<\/p>\n

There are a couple more lingering questions about the long-term viability of the AirCar, and flying cars in general too. For starters, the AirCar still runs on a petrol engine, something that\u2019s being gradually phased out of the transport industry<\/a><\/strong> in the next decade or so. Which means unless it can evolve to keep up with the legislation, its sales prospects might be dealt a serious blow.<\/p>\n

Plus, unlike drone taxi prototypes, the AirCar cannot take off and land vertically, and requires a runway to take to the air. How many runways for flying cars can the UK safely accommodate? Right now, the infrastructure just isn\u2019t there, and arguably it shouldn\u2019t be if we\u2019re going to make serious strides on achieving Net Zero as a nation.<\/p>\n

In short, it looks like a lot of the issues we detailed in our post about flying cars<\/a><\/strong> still apply. But who knows, we might be out of step with the industry on this one – just recently, a senior official at Hyundai told an excited industry conference crowd that flying cars will be a reality<\/a><\/strong> in cities around the globe by 2030. So we guess time will tell!<\/p>\n

We can say one thing for certain – whatever car you\u2019re driving, you can count on us to be able to recycle it in a safe, official way here at Scrap Car Network, all while getting you maximum cash for cars. All you need to do is enter your car reg and postcode into the fields on our site, and when you\u2019re ready, you can find out the value of your car in as little as 10 seconds! So\u2026 ready to find out what it\u2019s worth?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For decades now, flying cars have been seen as one of the natural evolutions of our mode of personal transport. Indeed, the mere sight of them is often used as a shorthand for a technologically advanced society in almost any sci-fi film you care to mention. But now they\u2019re closer to being a reality than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":4444,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n