Flying car passes tests and receives certification to fly; watch video

A car that can transform into a small aircraft has successfully passed flight tests in Slovakia, the project’s developers said.

The flying car, dubbed “AirCar”, received a Certificate of Airworthiness from the Slovak Transport Authority after completing 70 hours of “rigorous flight testing”, Klein Vision, the company behind the “dual-mode airplane car”, reported. .

According to a statement released by the company, the test flights — which included more than 200 takeoffs and landings — were compliant with European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) standards.

“The challenging flight tests included the full range of flight maneuvers and performance and demonstrated surprising static and dynamic stability of the vehicle when in aircraft mode,” the company said.

Watch video of the flying car in action

A spokesperson for Klein Vision told CNN that a pilot’s license is required to drive the hybrid vehicle, and added that the company expects to put the “AirCar” on sale within 12 months.

A team of eight experts spent more than 100,000 hours transforming design concepts into mathematical models that enabled the production of the flying car prototype. The “AirCar” is powered by a 1.6-liter BMW engine and runs on a simple “fuel sold at any gas station,” Anton Zajac, co-founder of Klein Vision, said in a statement to CNN.

The vehicle can fly to a maximum altitude of 18,000 feet (about 5.4 kilometers), Zajac added.

In June, the flying car completed a 35-minute test flight between Nitra airports and Slovakia’s capital Bratislava. After landing, the aircraft transformed into a car and was driven through the streets to the center of the city.

“The certification given to AirCar opens the door to the mass production of very efficient flying cars,” said test pilot Stefan Klein, inventor of the car and leader of the development team.

Kyriakos Kourousis, chairman of the Airworthiness and Maintenance Specialist Group at the Royal Aeronautical Society, UK, told CNN that “this is not the first time that similar types of vehicles have received certificates”.

“If the company that is involved in the certification makes a business plan, it can go as far as creating a product that can go to market,” said Kourousis.

He added: “It is the scale that will create many new employment opportunities and open up the possibility for new technologies to be developed.”

Other flying car projects in development include the PAL-V Liberty, a gyroplane that doubles as an automotive vehicle, from the Dutch company PAL-V. The vehicle has received a full certification base from the European Aviation Safety Agency, but has not yet completed the final “demonstration of compliance” stage, as the Dutch company’s website says.

Likewise, US company Terrafugia has obtained a special aircraft airworthiness certificate for its Transition vehicle — which also allows users to drive and fly — according to a press release released in January last year.

Kourousis added that vehicles like the “AirCar” could one day replace helicopters.

“The choice of an internal combustion engine for this vehicle’s propulsion system was likely based on proven technology,” said Kourousis. “The environmental impact could be substantial if the use of these vehicles is expanded, especially in urban environments.”

“I believe we will see all-electric or at least hybrid vehicles of this type or similar in the near future contributing to our environmental sustainability goals.”