It may still sound like the stuff of science fiction, but the AeroMobil flying car is close to a final design. The AeroMobil 3.0 prototype was premiered today at the Pioneers Festival in Vienna. The roadster-cum-light-aircraft is being tested to refine final performance and features.
- The AeroMobil first took to the skies last year as version 2.5. According to the company, the new version was developed and built in the 10 months after the release of version 2.5 and is "very close to the final product."
“I’m very happy with what we were able to achieve in such a short time with the team of only 12 people," says AeroMobil co-founder and CTO Stefan Klein. "AeroMobil 3.0 is not the end of a challenging project, it’s the beginning of a whole new adventure which may change the way how we look at the personal transport in the future."The new prototype was designed by Klein and the company's other co-founder Juraj Vaculik. It is built from predominantly the same materials as will be used for the final product and has all of the main features that will be present. These include avionics equipment, autopilot and an advanced parachute deployment system.AeroMobil compares the vehicle to a limousine or a large luxury sedan in terms of size, saying it can be parked in regular city parking spaces. It has sturdy suspension that allows it to take off and land on rough terrain and variable-angle wings that shorten take-off distance and improve efficiency. It is also said to have a low cost of maintenance, and runs on standard gasoline.
The primary use for the AeroMobil 3.0 is to test and improve its final performance, feature-set and characteristics. It has been tested in real flight conditions since this October and has entered a regular flight-testing program. In addition to having already been certified by the Slovak Federation of Ultra-Light Flying, the AeroMobil 3.0 has been designed so that it would achieve certification in the EU as both a car and a light sport aircraft.
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