Mass-Produced
I want to see these masses who can pay the million :)
this post was submitted on 22 May 2025
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A million and get a pilot licence.
I mean you can get a licence for 20-30k, the maintenance is deadly on a plane though, you could buy a very nice car each year on that money.
It’s not a flying car. It’s an airplane.
It's by definition trying to merge two opposite specs into one vehicle using the worst aspects of the two.
Give me a intercity train or intercity tram any day.
I don't think I've ever seen an intercity tram before. They tend to be strictly local affairs. Probably because local governments have to lay the lines, and there would be some kind of giant argument if it went across jurisdictions.
I've seen them in Germany, but between relatively small cities and towns.
Not Just Bikes made a video
about Trams not long ago.
“The AirCar fulfills a lifelong dream to bring the freedom of flight into the hands of everyday people.”
The price? Between $800,000 and $1 million, depending on specs.
Don't forget the cost and time investment in getting your pilots licence.
Also there is no way this is going to be legal to drive on public roads in most countries - just look at the massive tail boom that sticks out. This is just a fancy aircraft for people that want an overcomplicated Cessna.
The tail boom is massive compared to a sports car but I think the folded-up package looks not bigger than a giant American SUV.
Speaking as one who routinely has trouble parking a motor home and driving over curbs with it — this big awkward-looking vehicle doesn’t look like a great city-car but it does not compete with motor homes for the awkwardness prize.
What's crazy is you can build a kit plane for less than what this costs, and flying a kit plane does NOT need a pilot license in the US.
Woah woah woah. Not even close to true. The only things you can fly without a license is a single seat ultralight, paramotor, and similar things that most people would barely think of as a plane. There are very specific and restrictive requirements, both on the aircraft and what you can do with it.
Anything bigger, homebuilt or not, will require a LSA license at least ans many (if not most) a full PPL.
I couldn’t find specs skimming through the article, but it doesn’t look like it would fit in any normal parking space. Driving around might be as unwieldy as a motorhome or box truck, without the height advantage when you inevitably drive over a curb while turning. Doing that might also make it un-airworthy.
Do you see what happens, Larry?
I feel like "mass-produced" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Also, insurance is going to be insane.
Also “car” - can my local mechanic service it and give it a flying certificate? If not, it’s not a car.
More like a barely road-worthy airplane.
You don't get insurance on these
The vehicle, certified for airworthiness and flight-tested over 170 hours with more than 500 takeoffs and landings, is now headed for mass production.
Jesus fuck please tell me that's a typo and they left some zeros off. Your average commercial pilot has more than that before any airline is even willing to consider hiring them, that is absolutely not sufficient testing.
Still, early adopters may face bureaucratic turbulence. Potential buyers must be both licensed drivers and certified pilots.
No shit. And that is never going to change, becoming a certified pilot is a lot fuckin harder than getting a driver's license, and for very good reasons. If some BMW-driving cunt can't even be arsed to use his turn signal do you really want to ease the "bureaucratic turbulence" just so he can fuck up and crash into a packed airliner? These things still have to use runways, the people flying them still need to know how to behave themselves at airports, how to identify and avoid restricted airspace, how to communicate with ATC and how to behave if (let's be honest, when) they get Intercepted.
And all of this so you can have a car that's worse at being a car, and an airplane that's worse at being an airplane, but hey at least you won't have to book a rental car at your destination airport, which I remind you they still have to use.
As long as they're only using smaller airports. Let the millionaires and billionaires have this. It's like another ocean gate scenario.
I agree with everything you're saying though haha.
I still don't get how these companies keep getting funded. There's literally no way these things will ever become a thing. It's simply ridiculous.
Investors and venture capitalists fronting money and riding the Hype-Go-Round, but when the music stops and the lights go out someone's going to be out a shitload of money.
a plane. A flying car is called a plane.
I bet it handles like a boat on the roads though.
A plane that looks a bit like a car.
It’s called a plane.
So it's a small plane then?
I swear I saw this on TV like 20 years ago, it's a stupid idea, if I wanted a plane I would buy a plane and then drive to the airport in my car, attempting to combine the two technologies just makes both of them worse.
Or you could buy a Skyhawk, three Toyota Camrys and fuel for a year.
I don't trust must drivers on roads, much less the air. No good will come of this.
I am driving through a slight detour on my commute, it's still 3 lanes but with a slight bend, motherfuckers can't even keep their car in their fucking lane, almost hit 3 people this morning, fuckers can't drive
A truly universal experience
Damn, we really got flying cars before
- GTA 6
- Elder Scrolls 6
- Half Life 3 (but barely? Hopefully?)
It's a Lamborghini with wings stuck on the sides, it's not a flying car.
There are street legal autogyros that are a lot cheaper and make more sense as a crossover vehicle
Sweet. We need more ways for the 1% to kill themselves.
I hope its a popular buy among all our billionaires.
Okay I will admit it was impressive to see how they solved where to stow the wings and essentially shrink the airplane footprint to a long car footprint, but who is this for? Who out there has $1mil to blow and is like, "I have to drive directly from the tarmac to my hotel"?
This thing needs 300m of runway in its airplane form to get airborne, so forget city or even suburban takeoffs. And you're not going to just drive this thing around. At the end of the day, this is still a (very fancy) plane that drives.
Just find the tallest rooftop parking structure with a low wall sturdy enough for a ramp.
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Seen this like 10 years ago lol
We have had helicoptors for all these decades
Oh just like they did 5yrs ago every 5 years since the invention of powered flight
If wings don’t fold, fold your brain.
What problem does this solve? And is that problem worth all the negatives this brings?
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No thank you, I'll take a drone cab over this any day.
Apart from all the discussion regarding how stupid this is, how the fuck would this even fit on a road? I doubt the wings would be durable enough if they were retractable. This shit would take up 2 lanes and fuck up any and all intersections. And as a added bonus, it would fuck with everyone elses perception who are used to the distances you keep away from regular vehicles when theyre turning in front of you. This shitheap wouldnt even make it to the airport because someone will probably misjudge the turn radius with the wings and fuck it up on the way there.
They fold to the rear. So apparently they are - at least supposed to be - durable enough.
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