It used to be that, if you wanted a flying car, you’re only hope was to wait for the Terrafugia Transition, which should be available for about $279,000 by the end of this year.
Not any more.
Enter: the PAL-V 1.
The Netherlands company PAL-V (Personal Air and Land Vehicle) has announced that its flying car prototype has successfully completed several test flights within the past two weeks.
The Terrafugia Transition, which will debut on Friday at the New York International Auto Show, is set to be available for purchase by the end of 2012. It will cost about $279,000 and the company says it’s already taken about 100 orders.
PAL-V’s PAL-V 1 is currently in the development phase, but the company is seeking investors to help bring the flying car to market. PAL-V expects that the PAL-V 1 will sell for approximately $300,000.
Other than the fact that they can both be driven on the road and flown through the skies, the two vehicles don’t really have all the much in common.
The Terrafugia Transition is really more of a roadable aircraft, rather than a flying car.
The Transition‘s flying range is around 400 miles or so and it has a maximum velocity of 105 mph, but it’s much slower on the ground.
The PAL-V 1, meanwhile, flies in the air like a gyrocopter with lift generated by a rotating rotor and forward speed produced by a push propeller in the back. It has three wheels, a narrow base, and a high center of gravity.
The flying range of the PAL-V 1 is between 315 and 350 miles and it can reach speeds of up to 110 mph – both on the ground and in the air.
When it lands, it tucks away its rotor-blades and turns into a road-legal, three-wheeled vehicle.
“In the future, you will be able to drive from home to the airport, take off, land and then drive to your destination in one go,” PAL-V CEO Robert Dingemanse.
“It will revolutionize the era of personal air travel,” said Jacco Hoekstra, dean of the aerospace faculty at Delft Technical University, which with the Dutch National Aerospace Laboratory cooperated on the PAL-V project.
“Before, air travel was mainly based on public transport,” Hoekstra said. “Now it will become a lot more personal — you will simply be able to walk out your door, drive to a small airfield and fly away.”
Check it out in action below.
Related articles
- The Flying Cars Are Coming … To the New York Auto Show (wired.com)
- ‘Flying Car’ Maiden Flight (foxnews.com)
- Terrafugia’s flying car production prototype takes off (news.cnet.com)
- Flying cars cleared for take off: Futuristic fantasy vehicles come closer to reality after prototype success (mirror.co.uk)
- Terrafugia transition flies a production model roadable car and Pal-V flying car also flies (nextbigfuture.com)
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