The vehicle, certified for airworthiness and flight-tested over 170 hours with more than 500 takeoffs and landings, is now headed for mass production.
Jesus fuck please tell me that’s a typo and they left some zeros off. Your average commercial pilot has more than that before any airline is even willing to consider hiring them, that is absolutely not sufficient testing.
Still, early adopters may face bureaucratic turbulence. Potential buyers must be both licensed drivers and certified pilots.
No shit. And that is never going to change, becoming a certified pilot is a lot fuckin harder than getting a driver’s license, and for very good reasons. If some BMW-driving cunt can’t even be arsed to use his turn signal do you really want to ease the “bureaucratic turbulence” just so he can fuck up and crash into a packed airliner? These things still have to use runways, the people flying them still need to know how to behave themselves at airports, how to identify and avoid restricted airspace, how to communicate with ATC and how to behave if (let’s be honest, when) they get Intercepted.
And all of this so you can have a car that’s worse at being a car, and an airplane that’s worse at being an airplane, but hey at least you won’t have to book a rental car at your destination airport, which I remind you they still have to use.
As long as they’re only using smaller airports. Let the millionaires and billionaires have this. It’s like another ocean gate scenario.
I agree with everything you’re saying though haha.
The ocean depths arent above innocent people’s heads.
I still don’t get how these companies keep getting funded. There’s literally no way these things will ever become a thing. It’s simply ridiculous.
Investors and venture capitalists fronting money and riding the Hype-Go-Round, but when the music stops and the lights go out someone’s going to be out a shitload of money.
I’d be willing to bet if you put a calendar reminder in one year to check back on this you’d find that this car did not actually reach the mass-produced stage of industry.
Okay I will admit it was impressive to see how they solved where to stow the wings and essentially shrink the airplane footprint to a long car footprint, but who is this for? Who out there has $1mil to blow and is like, “I have to drive directly from the tarmac to my hotel”?
This thing needs 300m of runway in its airplane form to get airborne, so forget city or even suburban takeoffs. And you’re not going to just drive this thing around. At the end of the day, this is still a (very fancy) plane that drives.
Just find the tallest rooftop parking structure with a low wall sturdy enough for a ramp.
If it can handle a grass field, those are everywhere. OTOH, be cheaper and easier to fly a Cessna and spatter cars around at your destinations.
There are street legal autogyros that are a lot cheaper and make more sense as a crossover vehicle
Or you could buy a Skyhawk, three Toyota Camrys and fuel for a year.
Apart from all the discussion regarding how stupid this is, how the fuck would this even fit on a road? I doubt the wings would be durable enough if they were retractable. This shit would take up 2 lanes and fuck up any and all intersections. And as a added bonus, it would fuck with everyone elses perception who are used to the distances you keep away from regular vehicles when theyre turning in front of you. This shitheap wouldnt even make it to the airport because someone will probably misjudge the turn radius with the wings and fuck it up on the way there.
They fold to the rear. So apparently they are - at least supposed to be - durable enough.
Give me a intercity train or intercity tram any day.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen an intercity tram before. They tend to be strictly local affairs. Probably because local governments have to lay the lines, and there would be some kind of giant argument if it went across jurisdictions.
I’ve seen them in Germany, but between relatively small cities and towns.
Not Just Bikes made a video about Trams not long ago.
Seen this like 10 years ago lol
I feel like “mass-produced” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Also, insurance is going to be insane.
You don’t get insurance on these
You’re right; I forget insurance is for the poor.
How much can a replacement plane car plane even cost?? 1 million dollars? Better just buy 2 and keep one spare.
Also “car” - can my local mechanic service it and give it a flying certificate? If not, it’s not a car.
More like a barely road-worthy airplane.
What problem does this solve? And is that problem worth all the negatives this brings?
The problem it solves is that most small airports are located miles away from the communities they serve. That isn’t an issue with a car, but it does suck when traveling.
Uber/Lyft have mostly solved this problem. However. There are plenty of small rural communities or small vacation destinations which are too rural to have taxis or uber/lyft.
Is it worth it? No. But it’s a legit problem
No
Looks a bit like in “The Man With The Golden Gun”
I can see this work as a cab service. Pick me up at home and drop me off at my destination hotel/office. Within a single country this will shorten travel time enormously and for those paid enough by the hour that might come out to be cheaper than wasting time on travel.
That’s not very expensiv…
That’s not the “flying car” anyone envisioned or wanted. That’s just an airplane but a lot shittier.
a plane. A flying car is called a plane.
I bet it handles like a boat on the roads though.
A plane that looks a bit like a car.
I’d rather have a FLDSMDFR. Sorry not sorry. People already drive like ass on the road. I don’t need that in the sky.
I think I’d like to have the full alphabet instead.
