Hiya! Almost caught you spiralling down from cyberspace as I was spiralling up in my new AeroMobil 3.0! Good to see you though. Pour yourself a coffee; grab a tasty piece of virtual Austrian coffee cake and bring them over here to the VIP table! Got your passport with you? You may soon need to carry it with you in case your new flying car accidentally crosses a border. Read on...
The world's most advanced flying car, AeroMobil 3.0, was unveiled recently at Pioneers Festival in Vienna. WIRED first got its eyes on an AeroMobil prototype only a few months ago, at which point the unveiling the 3.0 model was slated for next year. But ahead of schedule, WIRED.co.uk has now seen AeroMobil 3.0 in person, which has folding insect-like wings and a spacecraft-cum-sportscar cockpit not only in the flesh, but in flight, thanks to footage released by the team today.
"We get lots of offers from auto shows," says AeroMobil co-founder Juraj Vaculik. "We decided pioneers festival is so right for us." As much as they are designers and engineers, Vaculik and his partner Stefan Klein are also entrepreneurs, and their projects have been primarily self-funded.
Behind the development of the AeroMobil is the idea that people should be able travel freely, but the Vaculik says they have also been inspired by the idea they can free people from the "daily prison we are all in" -- that is the "traffic jam prison" and the "airport prison". This statement provides insight into the two primary applications of the vehicle -- overcoming traffic- and airport-related problems -- but there is a third, not entirely unrelated application too.
"There are still a lot of countries where there is not an infrastructure," says Vaculik. Only three percent of the world has paved road and the AeroMobil team believes they have built the kind of vehicle capable of overcoming problems caused by lack of this infrastructure in many places.
One of the key features of the AeroMobil 3.0 is that it is fully capable of making use of existing infrastructure for both planes and cars. It only needs a grass strip of around 250 metres to take off and 50 metres to land. The vehicle has undergone rigorous testing and has even undertaken its maiden flight.
To fly the car, you do need a pilot's license, but the pair claim that it is very stable and easy to control.
Unfortunately, no matter how much you are willing to pay for the AeroMobil 3.0, the company is not taking any orders until it is sure it can start manufacturing them to standard. "We want to be a serious company.
This is not a boy toy -- we are not building a prop for a Hollywood movie," says Vaculik. The final price will fall somewhere in between the price of a supercar and a small plane, he adds.
Can’t you just hear it now...
Bubba: Say, Billy Bob, ah didn't know you was a pilot.
Billy Bob: Sho'nuff! Ah tol' 'em at the licence office that on the farm, ah used to pile it here...pile it there. They gimme mah license to fly this here car. Cute as a bug, huh?
Billy Bob: Hey Bubba, hold mah beer would y’all? Ah’m gonna fly right down and park this sucker in the gah-rage.
Bubba: Ah’m not sure that’s a good ah-de-a, Billy Bob.
Billy Bob: Why not?
Bubba: Ah don’t think them there wing thing-me-bobs will fit and besides...
Billy Bob: Besides what?
Bubba: The gah-rage door is closed!
The future has arrived! This is one sweet machine. Soon as I win the lottery...
https://youtu.be/kzYb68qXpD0
See y’all eh!
Bob
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