Flying Cars

California startup Alef Aeronautics's electric car has released the 'first-ever video in history of a car driving and vertically taking off," on a closed-off California road. Alef's incredibly ambitious Model A is on pre-sale for $300,000.

SkyDrive has long taken a leadership role in Japan's eVTOL industry with sights on making flying cars as common as automobiles. This week, it released the first photos of its soon-to-debut three-seater after taking the next step toward certification.

It was just a year ago that the Switchblade flying car made its first flight, moving one step closer to real-world usage. Based on what was learned in that flight, its makers have now unveiled the design for the production version of the vehicle.

One of the most outrageous sci-fi vehicles we've ever seen is moving toward a 2025 debut. This electric six-wheel off-roader can stop and deploy a two-seat eVTOL aircraft, for unstoppable multi-mode adventure travel on an entirely new level.

A year after it was pronounced airworthy by the FAA, and 14 years after it was first announced, the Samson Sky Switchblade is officially off the ground. This street-legal three-wheeler converts to a 200-mph (320-km/h) airplane at the touch of a button.

China's AeroHT is making rapid progress with its eVTOL flying cars, and it's now shown two fascinating new concepts – a six-wheel-drive hybrid-electric "aircraft carrier" van, and a new version of the flying supercar, with a fully concealed airframe.

The four-seat Aska A5 is the size of an SUV, but at the touch of a button it extends an array of electric propellers and converts to a cruise-capable eVTOL aircraft with an impressive hybrid range. The FAA has cleared it for flight testing.

Following more than 350 test flights and two demonstration races of its remotely piloted Airspeeder Mk3 eVTOL, Alauda Aeronautics has revealed the design for the first crewed racer – which boasts a top speed of 360 km/h and a range of 300 km.

Chinese automaker XPeng has updated the design of its AeroHT flying car – a luxury electric sportster with a fold-out vertical-lift octacopter system on the roof. It looks absolutely nutty, but a two-ton flying prototype indicates this is no joke.

After nailing a remotely piloted eVTOL drag race last year, and successfully completing its 250th test flight recently, Alauda Aeronautics has now announced the winner of its first uncrewed Airspeeder EXA race above the salt flats of South Australia.

With plans to introduce an air taxi service at the World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan, SkyDrive has announced that lessons learned from the development of its sporty SD-03 single-seat prototype have informed the design of a new two-seater SD-05 eVTOL.

What began with an unsuccessful Kickstarter in 2017 is about to break out as a thrilling new aerial sport later this year, following the announcement by Alauda Aeronautics of the successful completion of its 250th Airspeeder racing eVTOL test flight.