He refers to the announcement of KleinVision co-founder Anton Zajac, whose company AirCar created. Financial terms were not disclosed.
In 2021, an AirCar powered by a BMW engine and conventional fuel flew for 35 minutes between two Slovak airports. It used runways for takeoff and landing. It took over two minutes to transform a car into an airplane.
The AirCar received an airworthiness certificate from the Slovak Transport Authority in 2022. At the beginning of this year, the car appeared in a video posted by YouTuber Mr Beast.
China has already been at the forefront of electric car development and is now actively developing solutions for flying transportation. In February, the Autoflight company conducted a test flight of a drone to transport passengers between the cities of Shenzhen and Zhuhai. The trip, which takes three hours by car, took the drone 20 minutes, but the plane was empty of passengers. Last year, Chinese company eHang received a safety certificate from Chinese officials for its electric flying taxi. However, unlike drone-like aircraft, the AirCar does not take off and land vertically and needs a runway.
There are still significant barriers to this form of transportation in terms of infrastructure, regulation and public acceptance of the technology. Worldwide attempts to regulate this industry have rather brought a number of new questions.
“In that respect, the history of the West can slow things down because there is a bit of a temptation to try to squeeze these new machines into old categories,” aviation industry consultant Steve Wright told the BBC. “China could see this as an opportunity to get ahead,” he added.
Similar concerns once concerned electric cars, for which China has become the world market leader. The sale of Slovakia’s AirCar technology could raise questions about whether China is about to do the same with flying cars.
