The worlds first flying car prototype has been certified for testing by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The vehicle, that California startup describes as a flying car, is vehicle that can both fly and travel on roads.
Alef Automotive, said the vehicle “Model A” is the first flying car that is drivable on public roads to park like a normal car. The vehicle also has vertical takeoff and landing capabilities. It will be able to carry one or two occupants and will have a road-range of 200miles and a flying range of 110 miles.
The vehicle is expected to sell for $300,000 each with the first delivery expected to be at the end of 2025.
FAA Certificate
The FAA confirmed that it has issued the company a special airworthiness certificate, allowing for limited purposes that include exhibition, research and development.
Many companies are working on all-electric VTOLs, which stands for vehicle takeoff and landing aircraft. The FAA said that Alef is “not the first aircraft of its kind” to get a special airworthiness certificate.
However Alef said that its vehicles different because of its ability to be able to function on both land and air, to appear like a normal car and to park in normal parking area.
“We’re excited to receive this certification from the FAA. It allows us to move closer to bringing people an environmentally friendly and faster commute, saving individuals and companies hours each week. This is a one small step for planes, one giant step for cars,” said Jim Dukhovny, the CEO of Alef.
Alef’s Website
In the company’s website, they said the flying car will be a certified as a “low speed vehicle,” which means it won’t be able to go faster than about 25miles per hour on a paved road. “The assumption is that, if a driver needs a faster route, a diver will use Alef’s flight capabilities,” the company said on the site.
The vehicle still needs approval from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to go on roads.
The vehicle has been in development since 2015. Four friends, Constantine Kisly, Pavel Markin, Oleg Petrov and Dukhovny were inspired by the “Back to the Future” movies and decided to form a company to try to develop them.
According to the company, an initial automated test flight of a skeleton version of the car was successfully conducted in 2018, and a full size prototype was flown the following year.
The company has also said that earlier this year it had taken refundable pre-orders for more than 400 of the vehicles, either the cost pf$150 to be in the general queue or$1500 for the priority queue.
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