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Flying car prototype takes to the skies

VIENNA, Austria - Up, up and away... this is the AeroMobil 3.0, a car/plane hybrid that, its inventors say, will revolutionise personal transport.

The flying car weighs only 400kg and has a flying range of 700km and top flying ground speed of 200km/h. It was unveiled at a technology conference in Vienna on Wednesday (Oct 29 2014) and its inventor, Juraj Vuculik, says he has been working on the project for 30 years.

Now his dream of offering a fully functional flying car is almost a reality.

'NOT A BOY TOY'

Aeromobil co-founder and CEP Juraj Vaculik says on a video accompanying the Reuters story: "Our plan, the optimistic one, is that between 2016-2017 the first products will be delivered to customers. Now the next period will be testing, testing, testing."

Testing to make sure that the Aeromobil meets regulatory standards and gains flight certification.

VIDEO: Watch the AeroMobil in flight

The current prototype has wings that fold out to a span of eight meters. It runs on petrol (7.5 litres/100km). Vaculik says the machine's sleek design is as much about form as it is function and, when ready, will change the way people travel.

"No, it's not a boy toy," he said. "It's not something just strange for Hollywood movies... it is something which is really necessary for personal transport because it is more efficient. It is much more emotional and it is much faster because you are really travelling from A to B."

Hr believed it would give people the option to take to the air to avoid increasingly congested roads.

'I WANT TO TRY IT!'

Flora Petersen from Vienna was at the unveiling to see what all the hype was about. She said: "I love it! I didn't even know that it was yet possible actually, that you can make a car fly, so I really want to see how that works.

"I want to try it out, for sure."

And she may get her chance soon. The biggest challenge going forward for the team is to reduce the 200m of runway the car needs to take off - a distance hard to come by in a city.
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