Flying car cleared for takeoff on road
For decades. the world has been promised the imminent takeoff of flying cars. Now a commercial model has finally won approval to be driven on the road.
Europe’s motor vehicle regulator has cleared the way for the PAL-V Liberty, developed by a Dutch start-up, to be registered as a car.
Its makers hope that authorisation to sell it as an aircraft will be granted in 2022.
The three-wheeled Liberty looks like a futuristic Reliant Robin, albeit with bat’s wings folded on top. A prototype first flew in 2012. The final version, which will be built in India, will cost from € 300,000 ( NZ$ 530,300). Eighty orders have already been placed.
Owners will need a basic pilot’s licence, and some have begun training for their wings in the Netherlands.
The two-seater vehicle will fly at up to 180kmh, with a range of hundreds of kilometres, and have a top speed on the ground of 160kmh.
Unlike many of its electric rivals, which look like beefed-up drones, the Liberty uses existing technology.
It is an autogyro, and uses a propeller driven by two petrol engines to push it through the sky, while lift comes from a free-wheeling rotor similar to a helicopter’s. The rotor and propeller tuck away when the Liberty is the ground.
The makers claim that the vehicle is safer and easier to fly than fixed-wing rivals under development, because an autogyro cannot stall and drop from the sky if the pilot mishandles it – the freeturning rotor softens its descent like a parachute.
Mike Stekelenburg, chief technical officer of the company making the Liberty, said: ‘‘We have been co-operating
with the road authorities for many years to reach this milestone.
‘‘The excitement in the team is huge. It was very challenging to make a ‘folded aircraft’ pass all road admission tests.’’
Porsche and Boeing, which are working on drone-style air taxis, expect their products to reach the market in 2025.