The Slovakian manufacturer – Aeromobil s.r.o unveiled their futuristic invention, the flying automobile this year at the Top Marques car show held in Monaco on 20th April.
Aeromobil is a flying car designed by Štefan Klein. It is the first commercial flying car set to production. It’s a luxurious automobile that will cost between $1.2 million to $1.6 million. The company will produce only 500 units of this tech and will start shipping in 2020. The pre-orders are available and the first 24 pre-orders will get the special “Founders Edition” of Aeromobil.
Aeromobil is not the first company to work on the concept of flying automobiles. There are several other manufacturers that are working towards the development of such automobiles. A company namely PAL-V is working on a tri-wheel air hybrid vehicle and are already accepting the pre-orders. Italdesign and Airbus have teamed up to develop a car drone hybrid known as Pop-Up. This drone will be driverless. A well-known jetpack making company is also working on such projects.
It is the fantasy of almost everyone to experience such futuristic automobiles. Everyone wants to fly around the sky and live like the Jetsons. Now with Aeromobil, this fiction might come to reality. This vehicle will surely transform the way we travel in future.
“By combining aero and car functionality in perfect harmony it heralds a new era in efficient and exciting travel, offering users an unparalleled choice of transport on the road or in the air. AeroMobil aims to make personal transportation vastly more efficient and environmentally friendly by allowing significantly faster door-to-door travel for medium distance trips and in areas with limited or missing road infrastructure.” Reads the company’s website.
The Aeromobil concept was first started developing nearly 30 years ago. There were several versions of the car. The version 2.5, the first successful version took approximately 20 years to develop and made a successful first flight in 2013. The latest build of the Aeromobil transforms from an automobile into aircraft in less than 3 minutes. During the transformation, the foldable wings fold out and the front wheels move into the chassis. The Pitch pusher folds out at the rear. The engine is switched between the front wheels and the rear Pitch pusher through a bespoke transmission.
Performance:
* The Aeromobil in aircraft mode has a top speed of 200 km/h (124 mph; 108 kn)
* The maximum road speed of the vehicle is 160 km/h (99 mph)
* The stall speed is 60 km/h (37 mph; 32 kn)
* The Range in aircraft mode is 700 km (435 mi; 378 nmi)
* The Road range is 875 km (544 mi)
* The fuel consumption on road is 8 liters per 100 km.
* The fuel consumption for flight is 15 liters (4.0 US gal; 3.3 imp gal) per hour.
General Features:
* The Aeromobil has the capacity for two passengers.
* The length of the vehicle is 6 meter (19 ft and 8 in).
* The wingspan is 8.32 meters ( 27 ft and 4 in).
* The wings extended width is 2.24 m ( 7ft and 4 in)
* The wings folded empty weight is 600 kg (1,323 lb)
* The Powerplant has 1 × Rotax 912 four cylinders horizontally-opposed liquid and air-cooled piston aircraft engine, 75 kW (100 hp).
The aircraft can carry a maximum load of 240 kg (529 lb) that is enough for two average adult persons and their luggage.
The Aeromobil works remarkably to lessen the price of their vehicle. They design smartly to reduce the cost by means of shrewd plans and using novel materials and robotization. They are flawlessly Combining two separate means of transportation and are building a futuristic automobile. The company also plans to build several other models with the different price range to meet all the requirements as the industry keeps evolving. Their goal is to develop commercial transportation that is efficient as well as environmentally friendly.
This flying machine looks nicely build and executed and shows that there are some great minds behind it. It has a nice curved design like a super car. It is a high-end flying vehicle that will help a lot in long distance travel. Aside from its extremely expensive eye-popping price tag, it is almost like an airplane so you will be needing a pilot license in order to own one.
The automobile expert Elon Musk, in an interview, said that he does not support the concept of flying cars and says that these cars will be noisy and will generate lots of wind due to the downward force in order to keep them in the air. He thinks it is not a good way to fix the traffic and says that he obviously likes flying cars but developing them for commercial use is a dumb idea. He further says that there’s no actual future where flying cars will exist and we should focus on mastering our current cars first.
However on the other hand companies like Uber and Zee.Aero are interested in this concept. Zee.Aero is even trying to build an autonomous VTOL ( Virtual Take-off Landing) automobile.
The vehicle has been certified to operate in Europe, and it is planned to then release in the United States and then the company will introduce it in China as well.
If the company succeeds in their motive and provide us the transportation of future then this is going to revolutionize the entire tech world.
