A prototype flying car has been approved for testing by the US’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
This car comes from Alef Aeronautics, which claims to have been working on its flying car concept since 2015. Its prototype has been awarded a Special Airworthiness Certification by the FAA.
Alef says this is the first time a vehicle of this kind has received this form of approval by the US government.
The car is already up for pre-order on the Alef Aeronautics website. You can pay $150 to enter the queue, but the expected final cost of one of these flying cars is $300,000, equivalent to around £235,670.
But how does it work?
How would a flying car work?
The Alef Aeronautics Model A can be used like a relatively normal car. It has four wheels and an electric motor, and its on-road range is estimated at up to 200 miles.
Alef Aeronautics also estimates its in-air range at up to 110 miles. However, to fly in directions other than straight up, the Model A will need to turn on its side because the car’s flight is powered by a series of rotor blades that sit inside its mesh-like shell.
Stop thinking about it as a flying car and the Alef Model A starts to look more like a giant rideable drone.
The passenger won’t be left sitting at 90 degrees to the ground, though, because the seating compartment is mounted on a gimbal-like structure that keeps you parallel to the ground at all times.
Are we witnessing the birth of future transportation tech?
Alef Aeronautics claims it plans to start production in 2025, which seems incredibly soon given what an unusual design the Model A represents. Unfortunately, some of the details reveal the story isn’t quite as tasty in reality as it seems on the surface.
When will flying cars be a reality?
As Alef Aeronautics CO Jim Dukhovny explained in an interview with NewsNation, it’s actually a “precursor to model A which got certified” for testing, not the car the company will go on to sell.
He explains the FAA has greenlit “very limited certification for very limited purposes, and very limited areas where we can [do it].”
Despite looking like a sports car, the Alef Aeronautics is clearly not made for the motorway either. According to the Alef Aeronautics website, it will be classed as a “low-speed vehicle”, suggesting it will have a maximum speed of around 25mph or less.
“The assumption is that, if a driver needs a faster route, a driver will use Alef’s flight capabilities,” the company explains.
However, it also says a full-size version of the car was tested as far back as 2019. “A real full-size flying car was shown to a group of investors. It consisted of driving, vertical takeoff, and a small forward motion,” the company’s website reads.
According to Crunchbase, Alef Aeronautics has attracted around £2.36 million in funding, including from SpaceX. Meanwhile, China’s XPeng Aeroht has more than 100 times the money behind it, which might be taken as evidence of Alef Aeronautics’s 2025 production estimates are somewhat optimistic.
