Car and Aviation News: The World’s First Flying Car Could Go on Sale By 2017 [Watch]
It seems something dreamed up by childhood imagination, science fiction or cartoons like "The Jetsons," but flying cars already exist, and soon, you will be able to purchase one.
A Slovakia-based company plans to offer its flying car for commercial sale to the public within 24 months, reports Forbes.
The prototype roadable aircraft, designed by AeroMobil Co-Founder and Chief Designer Štefan Klein, was first flown in 2013. The fully functional prototype model known as the AeroMobil 3.0 was unveiled to the world Oct. 29, 2014 in Vienna. The vehicle, developed and built in only 10 months, is elongated, road-ready and has stowable wings that can navigate both city traffic and the airspace.
On Monday, at the 2015 South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, AeroMobil Co-Founder and CEO Juraj Vaculik announced that the company planned to bring its flying cars to market sooner than expected.
"We are now scaling up quite fast, building the team, and the plan is that in 2017 we'll be able to announce... the first flying roadster," Vaculik told CNBC. "The point is not only to showcase that it's possible to marry together a plane and a car, but to really commercialize it."
AeroMobil expects that the vehicle will first appeal to luxury car fanatics and aircraft enthusiasts. The flying car will have a retail price that falls between the latest Tesla Motors offerings and a small plane of a "couple hundred thousand dollars," according to Vaculik.
The first commercially available model will likely be a two-seater with a take-off speed of 81 miles per hour, top air speed of about 124 miles per hour, an autopilot function and a 435-mile range, according to the AeroMobil website.
AeroMobil already has a competitor in the flying car market. American company Terrafugia also hopes to begin delivery of its own flying car models in the next year or two. The company has two models available: the Transition, a fixed wing and street legal airplane, and the TF-X, a fixed wing street-legal aircraft with electric ground drive and power assist on take-off and landing.
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