The legendary French synth musician Jean-Michel Jarre has become the first passenger to take to the skies in KleinVision’s incredible flying car.
Placing all of his faith in an automobile with wings, Jarre climbed aboard the AirCar at Piešťany Airport in Slovakia earlier this month.
KleinVision released a video (top) of the short flight, with Jarre looking as calm as a cucumber as the vehicle soared into the sky.
“It’s like being in a Jules Verne book, but for real,” the musician said after returning to terra firma, adding, “One second you speak to the driver, and the next you are up there in the air — an amazing experience.”
The AirCar is largely the work of Stefan Klein, founder and CEO of Slovakia-based KleinVision, and has been in development for several decades. The remarkable vehicle has already logged 130 flight hours and over 520 takeoffs since its maiden flight in 2019, and two years ago it received a Certificate of Airworthiness.
The dual-mode vehicle converts between a car and an airplane with a simple push of a button that automatically retracts/deploys its wings and tail in just over two minutes.
The AirCar is powered by gasoline and uses a BMW engine and a fixed propeller to get around. It has a maximum cruising speed of 119 mph (190 kph) and has flown as high as 2,500 meters (8,200 feet). The next version of the AirCar is expected to have a top cruising speed of 186 mph (300 kph) and be able to travel as far as 621 miles (1,000 km) on a single tank of fuel. It takes off at about 75 mph after a run-up of 300 meters, so anyone wanting it for the commute to work will need a very long driveway.
Reassuringly, the AirCar also has a parachute deployment system in case of any engine trouble or some other malfunction when riding through the clouds.
While many companies have been developing small, electric-powered vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft in the hope of launching sky-based taxi services within cities, the AirCar is better designed for travel between urban areas and, after it lands, can also drive off the runway and onto regular roads.
Anyone behind the wheel will of course require both a driver’s license and a pilot’s license, and it remains to be seen whether Klein can get regulatory approval for mainstream use of his rather splendid vehicle.
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