Technology
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If you are a supervillain with millions of dollars lying around in the back of your swiveling armchair, then get in line to pre-order this flying car.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.AeroMobil is showing off their flying car model this week at the Top Marques Monaco car show. The Slovakian company has been talking about this for years, but finally they say they hope to offer pre-orders as early as this year, Reuters and AFP reports. They say they will be manufacturing less than 500 cars and will hopefully deliver them in 2020. The model comes with a heavy (although not ridiculous) price tag of 1.2 million to 1.5 million euros ($1.29 million to $1.61 million).
It’s also worth remembering that current infrastructure doesn’t support this kind of vehicle, so while you won’t be able to fly it around the streets, your private airstrip shouldn’t be a problem.
This vehicle can hit both the road and the skies. It functions much like a typical car, but is able to fold out its wings and go into flight mode within three minutes. Then, using a hybrid engine and rear propeller, it is capable of reaching aerospace speeds of up to 360 kilometers (223 miles) per hour. You can watch a video of it in action below.
"The technology is there... The question is bringing it to the market at an affordable cost, and making it a useful product," Philip Mawby, professor of electronic engineering and head of research at the University of Warwick, told AFP. "I think it's going to be a very niche product."
Starting from a hanger in rural Slovakia, AeroMobil revealed their first viable prototype in 2014. The following year, the prototype crashed with the car’s inventor, Stefan Klein, onboard. It's been a long and bumpy road for them, but it looks like they might finally be making some serious headway.
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