Flying Car: Is it the Future of Transport?

-By Teddy Nwanunobi

The founder of the Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford, once made an audacious statement in 1940.

“Mark my word: A combination airplane and motorcar is coming. You may smile, but it will come,” he said.

Ford died seven years after. But 74 years after his death, Ford’s famous statement has come true.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), on Tuesday, June 29, 2021, reported that a prototype flying car had completed a 35-minute flight between international airports in Nitra and Bratislava, Slovakia.

AirCar is the name of the car-aircraft that made history. It is the dream the spokesman for the US Experimental Aircraft Association, Dick Knapinski, spoke to the BBC of in October 2013.

“Since the Wright Brothers and Henry Ford we’ve had the dream of marrying the plane and the car,” Knapinski said.

Eight years after, Knapinski must be grinning from ear-to-ear to see his dream come true eight years after.

Titled, ‘Flying car completes test flight between airports’, BBC reported that the car-aircraft is equipped with a BMW engine and runs on regular petrol-pump fuel.

AirCar, its creator, Prof. Stefan Klein, said, could fly about 1,000 kilometres (600 miles), at a height of 8,200 feet (2,500 metres), and had clocked up 40 hours in the air so far.

“It takes two minutes and 15 seconds to transform from car into aircraft,” the report added.

Interests in flying cars

Investors must have been very optimistic about the future of flying cars, especially as it regards the future of transportation. And this optimism they believe would be sooner rather than later.

Consider the fact that the concept of flying cars becoming a reality dates back at least a decade. Since then, several companies have been investing millions into their development, and touting their debut. But each passing year, expectations went unmet without any evidence of change.

This seemed to be changing, however, as the number of companies investing in various types of flying cars. In addition to technological advances, new designs were being pursued that were truly revolutionary.

Goodbye to traffic jams, flight runs

One point that cannot be argued about the excitement of having the flying cars is the fact that the user would not have to contend with the traffic jams that characterises the use of vehicles on the roads. In a country like Nigeria, there is hardly a city where one does not experience these traffic jams. In some cases, they are like nightmares to a lot of Nigerians. The flying cars would surely avoid this.

There is the issue of making arrangements with flights, as well as booking for tickets. There are online bookings and other arrangements, no doubt. But there are also disappointments, as they also come with their problems. Besides, one must get to an airport, go through the boarding challenges before jetting out in an aircraft. Even owning a private jet does not ensure one must avoid going to an airport, taking off from one and landing on one.

The flying cars have been manufactured to take care of these issues. Not even the issue of parking would be seen as a challenge. With a flying car, one would not only avoid the traffic jams, one would also avoid the bookings and other arrangements, as well as physically going to an airport – whether to take off or land. Since they are coming in convertibles, flying cars would not have any need of parking at airports. They would comfortably live with their owners – neatly parked in garages or designated car parks.

Something for Nigerians, if not for…

Nigerians are interesting people when it comes to automobiles. It is, arguably, in Nigeria that one can see the latest automobile models as they are produced. One would not be wrong to say that there is a big competition among Nigerians to show off in this industry. Name the car that exists in the world that is hardly owned by a Nigerian. That is how much of a freak Nigerians are to cars.

It will only be a matter of time, and it would be owned by a Nigerian. Of course, price will be the only difference. At the moment, it is doubtful, if a Nigerian would want to cough out the sum of N1 billion to buy a flying car.

The company behind AirCar, Klein Vision, said that the prototype took about two years to develop, and cost “less than 2 million euros” (£1.7 million) in investment.

An adviser and investor in Klein Vision, Anton Zajac, said that, if the company could attract even a small percentage of global airline or taxi sales, it would be hugely successful.

“There are about 40,000 orders of aircraft in the United States alone. And if we convert 5 per cent of those, to change the aircraft for the flying car – we have a huge market,” he said.

Nigerians might have to wait for more time when more investments would have gone into the production of flying cars, thereby reducing the cost of production, which invariably would reduce the price of a unit, since there would be many other versions in the market.

If not for security reasons, the flying cars are very perfect for Nigerians. At the airports, there are security operatives to check for movements of drugs and weapons. Although it does not have the same effect as the airports, such situations are also witnessed on the roads. But the flying cars that do not operate from airports or drive for too long on the road, this would be a difficult one for the Nigerian security, and could prove to be deadly for the country.

How cool?

No date has been announced for a production version of the AirCar yet. However, Klein Vision is very confident that, with the development milestone the automobile industry has witnessed above, it can be expected soon.

Senior Research Fellow in Avionics and Aircraft at the University of the West of England, Dr. Stephen Wright, described the AirCar as “the lovechild of a Bugatti Veyron and a Cesna 172”.

And he did not think the vehicle would be particularly loud or uneconomical in terms of fuel costs, compared with other aircraft.

“I have to admit that this looks really cool – but I’ve got a hundred questions about certification. Anyone can make an aeroplane, but the trick is making one that flies and flies and flies for the thick end of a million hours, with a person on board, without having an incident. I can’t wait to see the piece of paper that says this is safe to fly and safe to sell,” Wright said.