Urban Transport

Aska flying car concept revealed in Israel

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A flying Aska prototype may take to the air in early 2020
Being developed by American/Israeli startup NFT, the Aska is classified as an eVTOL vehicle - that stands for Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing.
With its wings folded back, the Aska can be driven on the road like a regular car, as it's about the size of an SUV
The Aska demonstrator model on display at the EcoMotion show
A flying Aska prototype may take to the air in early 2020
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While we've seen some "flying cars" that require a runway, there's no doubt that what most people really want is a vehicle that takes off and lands more like a helicopter. Well, the Aska may be the answer … when and if it reaches production.

Being developed by American/Israeli startup NFT, the Aska is classified as an eVTOL vehicle - that stands for Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing. With its wings folded back, it can be driven on the road like a regular car, as it's about the size of an SUV.

Once it's time to take off, though, the wings fold out to expose 10 ducted fans built into the vehicle's main body. There are an additional two fans in the rear, along with two on the wings (one at either end). The thrust provided by all 14 fans proceeds to lift the Aska up off the ground, taking it to its cruising altitude.

The Aska demonstrator model on display at the EcoMotion show

Upon reaching that height, the vehicle's rear and wing fans pivot to sit vertically. They then proceed to propel the Aska forward, as it goes into faster and more energy-efficient fixed-wing flight mode. When it's time to land, the process is simply reversed.

Plans call for the three-passenger vehicle to operate autonomously on the road and in the air, with a proprietary artificial intelligence-based system allowing it to detect and avoid both moving and stationary obstacles. It will require 20 by 20-meter (65.6-ft) landing/launch pads – so, sorry Blade Runner fans, but it won't simply be able to take off from city streets.

Power will be provided primarily by a bank of rechargeable batteries, with an electric/gasoline hybrid system serving as a flight range extender. That range sits at an estimated 563 km (350 mi).

With its wings folded back, the Aska can be driven on the road like a regular car, as it's about the size of an SUV

And yes, buying one of the things outright would likely be pretty expensive. For that reason, NFT plans on additionally offering a subscription service, in which clients would pay a monthly fee that would give them access to one of the vehicles as needed.

The Aska (which is Japanese for "flying bird") was officially unveiled this Monday, when a scale "demonstrator" model was presented at the EcoMotion show in Tel Aviv. A company representative tells us that a flying prototype is planned for the first quarter of next year. Its VTOL transition is demonstrated in the animated video below.

Source: Aska

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9 comments
PhilippeHolthuizen
The overall fan lay out and the oversimplified design and animation... vaporware!
Pelham
I'm so unimpressed by all these iterations of flying cars.
They all use props and wings, tech that has been around for well over a century and really just mimics what birds do. And I believe at least one flying car was developed in the late '40s. So big whoop.
Real flying cars would have anti-gravity capabilities. That was the Jetsons promise (no wings on George's car, just a tailfin that was probably decorative). When we have that, wake me up.
paul314
Are all those smaller ducted fans really more effective than a few bigger ones? And why not just ditch the conventional-car shaping, which doesn't seem to go well. I'll believe one of these when I see it.
TomLeeM
I think it is a very interesting idea; combination of multi-rotor helicopter with airplane. If is just a multi-rotor helicopter, perhaps more feasible? It would be interesting to see how it would take off and land; even if it is just an animation.
christopher
wings fold the wrong way - they need to fold under, so the hinge can take the loads and don't fold-up in flight
jerryd
It's an expensive death trap. Those outer props if one stops with that leverage would rip the plane apart at 100+ mph. As others said, fewer body lift props. In fact just 1 in front and 1 in back would lift 2-3x as much weight/hp as earlier ones have shown.
Buzzclick
Slick demo videos don't mean much if the concept doesn't create confidence. First, it's not an attractive design. Second, it looks too heavy. Third, parachutes ain't gonna be much help if something goes wrong. Fail.
Kalavo
Forget the car for a minute. New Atlas needs to better regulate the crap inventions that crop especially these flying cars, look at this crap bulky folding wings huge fans at the tips! Multiple smaller inefficient fans at the bonnet! Is this a joke?
Elizane09
Bring back Molt Taylor's Aerocar. It even had a FAA Type Certificate.