Flying Cars

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.

After 14 years of development, the Samson Switchblade – a fast, street-legal three-wheeler that converts at the touch of a button into a 200-mph airplane – has been approved for airworthiness by the FAA. The team is now preparing for flight tests.

Japanese eVTOL company SkyDrive has announced it's going into partnership with Suzuki, as it works toward the development and full-scale production of a "compact, two-seating electric-powered flying car," which it hopes to debut at the Osaka World Expo in 2025.

After taking to the air for the first time last year, Klein Vision's AirCar has now aced its first inter-city flight – taking off from Nitra airport, landing in Bratislava some 35 minutes later, and then heading into the Slovakian capital by road.

Matt Pearson's Alauda Aeronautics has released footage of engineers remotely piloting its full-size Airspeeder Mk3 multirotor electric "flying car" ahead of international teams taking the controls for the first EXA racing series later in the year.

Scientists have demonstrated a new type of lithium-battery they say is built specifically for eVTOL flight, leveraging an innovative high-temperature charging technology to give it enough juice for meaningful aerial trips in just five to 10 minutes.

Following a Kickstarter in 2017 to gauge interest in an electric flying car racing series, and an international public debut in 2019, Alauda Aeronautics has now unveiled a full-sized, fully functioning electric flying racing car – the Airspeeder Mk3.

French startup MACA is looking to bring car racing into the air above the track. Its Carcopter eVTOL race car is no drone, manned by a human driver pushing the hydrogen-fed electric-driven craft to speeds over 150 mph ... or so MACA hopes.

Slovakia's Klein Vision has released video of its new AirCar flying car prototype as it drives around, automatically transforms into flight mode, and then takes to the sky for its maiden flight. It's fun watching, but there are challenges ahead.