The Jetsons was the most futuristic show of its time. The technology may have sounded too far ahead of its time when the show was aired. But now, it looks like the fictitious future is finally here. Flying cars and artificial intelligence were the main concepts of the show. AI has already begun to replace humans, and the flying cars are now, the trending products in the market.
The Dutch company, PAL-V has announced the first ever flying car PAL-V Liberty which is now open for preorders. The newly announced vehicles, Liberty Sport and Liberty Pioneer, can both be driven on the land and flown through the skies. The ground-breaking product inaugurates the futuristic era of flying cars, but that era is clearly not for everyone. The car’s basic model begins at $399,000, excluding tax but the Pioneer model comes in no less than $599,000.
The company has been working on the product for 15 years before its first test flight took place in 2015. The vehicle uses a Rotax engine that powers dual propulsion drive train; one for flying and the other for driving. In the drive mode, the rotors of the car fold up, and the propeller is tucked at the back. The company claims that the car can be converted from driving mode to the flying mode in no more than 15 minutes.
The PAL-V Liberty weighs only 664 kg, and the maximum take-off weight of the vehicle is 910 kg. With a fuel economy of 13.16 kilometer per liter, it can move up to a speed of 160 km/h when in the drive mode with a power of 99 BHP. In the flying mode, the car can accelerate from 0-100 km/h taking no more than 9 seconds. The maximum operating altitude of the flying car is 3.5 kilometers (11,480 feet) with a power output of 198 BHP. The vehicle can reach a top speed of 180 km/h. With a full tank, the car can fly a distance up to 310 miles.
While the pre-orders are open now, the cars will be delivered by late 2018. If you are prepared for making a down-payment for the first ever flying car, there are some things that you should keep in mind. The first one is that you can not just get your car to go anywhere, it needs a minimum space of 590 feet to fly, and the regulations require that it takes off from an airstrip or airfield. So, you won’t be secretly flying it out of your backyard, no matter how big your yard is.
To pre-order the Liberty, you need to make a down payment of $10,000 for the base model and a $25,000 for the Pioneer one. However, this payment will be non-refundable. Only 90 of these vehicles will be sold worldwide. If you can not pay a $25,000 down payment, you can put a refundable $2,500 escrow deposit, but this will only put you on the waiting list. The crafts are expected to sell out fast, and you may want to be quicker if you aim to be among the first ones to own a flying car.
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