The idea of a flying car has caught or imagination in several of Hollywood’s futuristic films. The Fifth Element and Judge Dredd come to mind first, but we’re sure there are loads more you can think of. The reality however is that it’s not a simple thing to do. Well until some chaps in Slovakia decided to give it a bash.

Flying Car to be Fully Licensed

The AeroMobil 3.0 is the Slovakian company’s third prototype and most successful attempt at a flying car. As you can see from the video below, the wings are able to fold away to form part of the bodywork whilst in car mode and then in a matter of seconds, fold out to form an 8.3M wingspan.

There are a few extra bits about the flying car that aren’t shown in the video. There is a deployable parachute, an autopilot system as well as a bunch of avionics equipment. The idea is to have the AeroMobil licensed for both road use and as a light aircraft for sport use in the Euro Zone.

The flying car is powered by a four-cylinder Rotax 912 naturally aspirated, water-cooled engine and as a car can reach a top speed of 160kph – probably needed to reach take-off speeds. Whilst airborne the AeroMobil will clock up over 200kph.

The flying car claims a fuel economy of around 8L/100km whilst being driven and nearer 15L/hour whilst being flown. The flying car is still in concept form so don’t expect it to be in commercial production any time soon.

In order to help the flying car land easier the engineers have strengthened and stiffened the suspension up tremendously, which probably won’t make it a pleasant ride on the tarmac but does mean that the flying car can take-off and land on quite rough terrain.

The Flying Car in Action Video