A vehicle that can transform from a car into a plane will become the world's first commercially available flying car later this year, the company developing it has announced.
Slovakian firm Aeromobil will unveil its two-seater flying car at the Top Marques car show in Monaco on April 20, 27 years after it first began developing the concept of a flying car. Aeromobil claims the vehicle meets the regulatory requirements for both cars and planes.
"By combining aero and car functionality in perfect harmony it heralds a new era in efficient and exciting travel, offering users an unparalleled choice of transport on the road or in the air," Aeromobil states on its website.
"Aeromobil aims to make personal transportation vastly more efficient and environmentally friendly by allowing significantly faster door-to-door travel for medium distance trips and in areas with limited or missing road infrastructure."
Earlier this month, Aeromobil secured $3.2 million in funding to help bring the vehicle to market and is currently seeking additional investors, a spokesperson for the company tells Newsweek.
Aeromobil is not the only company developing flying cars, with the first working model appearing 70 years ago. The ConVairCar, designed by the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Company of San Diego, completed test flights over California in 1947 but never went into production.
Ford and Chrysler subsequently worked on flying car concepts but never brought them to market. More recently, Uber revealed its interest in the idea of a self-flying car by hiring a former NASA engineer to head its aviation department.
A 99-page white paper published last year by Jeff Holden, Uber's chief product officer, outlined the ride-hailing company's futuristic vision of autonomous drone-filled skies. For the concept to be practical, Uber believes vehicles would need to have vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capabilities.
"Recently, technology advances have made it practical to build this new class of VTOL aircraft," Holden's paper states. "Over a dozen companies, with as many different design approaches, are passionately working to make VTOLs a reality."
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