Juraj Vaculik, CEO of AeroMobil - a pioneer in this industry - stated that flying cars will become reality in less than two years. According to the manager, in 2017 his company will be ready to launch on the market this car born from the desire to escape from the communist regime. Indeed, the development began over thirty years ago when Vaculik and his partner Stefan Klein dreamed of a way to escape from Czechoslovakia.
To the US television channel CNBC, Vaculik told: "We are scaling up quite fast, building the team, and the plan is that in 2017 we'll be able to announce the first flying roadster.
The point is not only to showcase that it's possible to bring together a plane and a car, but to really commercialise it."
Equipped with only two seats, it weighs just under 500 pounds and has three wheels. The two wings fold on the body in order to move nimbly in the street. Through the use of lightweight materials, the petrol engine of 100 horses is able to reach 200 kilometres per hour both in the air and on the road with a consumption of 13 km per litre.
After years of trial and error, the turning point came in October 2014, when the third AeroMobil prototype made its first real flight. But now comes the difficult part, because - like all pioneers - also the Slovak company will have to wait for the laws of several states to accept this new presence on the roads.
According to Vaculik, his invention has the full support of the European Union, but there are still some pitfalls to overcome. The first is the extensive use of lightweight materials for the body, which should be approved for road use. To be efficient, AeroMobil would need airstrips next to highways. Nothing earth-shattering, however: according to Vaculik, a grassy strip of two hundred meters would be enough to take off and landing. As for the license, obviously you'll need both a car license and a flight for light vehicles. The price is still undisclosed but it will definitely exceed two hundred thousand pounds.
