Shift Magazine - May 2021 - 12

Price is one reason flying cars
are a niche market: AeroMobil's
craft has an estimated cost of
$1.3 million to $1.6 million.

YES, THERE ARE

FLYING CARS

For a select few, aircraft capable of road travel might deliver seamless skies

F

BY PETE BIGELOW

lying cars may never revolutionize transportation. But for those
few people who have the financial
wherewithal and piloting skills to own
and operate them, flying cars may indeed
be revolutionary machines.
Forget the technological novelty of
melding aviation and automotive. The
practical achievement of creating a vehicle that can travel both on roadways and
via airways might eradicate the everyday
hassles associated with modern travel.
No more long lines at security screenings
or rental-car counters.
No rides in the back seats of heavyscented Ubers.
Skip the soulless airport entirely, in fact,
should the mood strike.
" A plane that you can take on the
road changes everything, " said Robert
Dingemanse, co-founder and CEO of
Dutch flying-car company PAL-V. " General
aviation is cumbersome, because once
you land, you're stuck at an airport. This
way, you take it from your garage, fly
somewhere and after landing you don't
leave your plane or store it. You just drive it
to your destination. "

12

Deliveries of the PAL-V Liberty two-seat gyroplane are expected to begin late next year.

Flying cars have stretched the imagination for the better part of a century.
Inventors and tinkerers have produced
concepts that achieved liftoff and trundled along roads for a while. But they've
stalled in transforming their creations
from one-off science projects into mature
commercial products.
A combination of new lightweight materials and regulatory tailwinds now allow for
that possibility.
In February, the European Union Aviation

Safety Agency granted a first-of-its-kind
certification to PAL-V's Liberty, a two-seat
gyroplane that met approximately 1,500
requirements to earn its new status after
more than a decade of development. Last
fall, the company received a road-ready
thumbs-up from Europe's ground-based
regulators. Dingemanse aims to sell 90 of
the aircraft.
Competitors may be in pursuit. The
Terrafugia Transition, a flying car made by
a Zhejiang Geely Holding Group subsidiary,

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5/14/21 2:31 PM
Shift Magazine - May 2021

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