The “AirCar” is now certified to fly after passing safety tests in Slovakia that included 200 take-offs and landings. This flying vehicle can transform from a car on road to a flying vehicle, quite like a plane in less than three minutes. According to the developers, Aircar would be the best for self-driving journeys in the near future. It is also possible that AirCar could go on sale in the next 12 months.
This flying car made by Klein Vision made first flights towards the end of 2020 and flew city-to-city for the first time in June of last year. It has now been granted its Certificate of Airworthiness by the Slovak Transport Authority. By 2016, Professor Stefan Klein had terminated his work with a Slovak air mobility company called Aeromobil because he wanted to work on his own flying car.
AirCar has been engaged with more than 70 hours of rigorous flight testing to European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) standards, including 200 take-offs and landings on cross-country jaunts, on its way to being awarded its Certificate of Airworthiness by the Slovak Transport Authority, the developers say that an updated model is expected to be certified in the next 12 months.
“Transportation Authority carefully monitored all stages of unique AirCar development from its start in 2017,” said René Molnár, director of the Civil Aviation Division of the Transport Authority of Slovakia. “Transportation safety is our highest priority. AirCar combines top innovations with safety measures in line with EASA standards. It defines a new category of a sports car and a reliable aircraft. Its certification was both a challenging and fascinating task.”
The company’s co-founder, Anton Zajac told, “The Certificate of Airworthiness is an official certificate issued in compliance with all EASA regulations for its member states.” He further said, “Each member state appoints local authority to issue certificates valid across the member countries. Hence, Aircar could fly into the UK and we do have plans to fly to London from Paris in near future.”
Quite like a LeMans race car, the two-seat Aircar prototype includes a 140 hp 1.6-liter four-cylinder BMW combustion engine that can drive both, the wheels when on the road and a fixed propeller when in flight. This vehicle features a take-off speed of 115 km/h with the speed of 180 km at 2800 rpm, and is efficient enough to tolerate road speeds of more than 160 km/h. This vehicle has the feature of transforming itself from an aircraft mode to road mode in less than three minutes with just a press of a button.
Mr. Klein is testing a lightweight engine from Adept Airmotive that is destined to influence a new monocoque AirCar with a variable-pitch prop that is expected to reach speeds of over 300km/h and the range of 1000 km.
