The AirCar goes from car to airplane with the press of a button

Speaker 1: You might have a car, but can your ride fold out a pair of wings and turn into an airplane? This is the air car, a flying car that lets you drive down the interstate. Then take an interstate flight without leaving your seat. Most flying cars that make it into the real world. Aren't really cars at all. They're more like personal life size drones designed to take off vertically and land on the tops of buildings. [00:00:30] But a company called Kline vision wants to change that with the air car, according to Kline vision's co-founder and on Zaja the air car is a true hybrid vehicle. Not as you know it. Speaker 2: Air car is a dual mode vehicle. It is a nice sports car that you would love to drive in. And then without a team of technicians, by pushing a button, you would convert it, transform it into a fully fledged aircraft. Speaker 1: [00:01:00] Now this isn't just a pair of wings, bolted onto a sports car. The wings actually fold out from the body of the air car and then tuck away under panels when they're not in use. And what looks like a rear spoiler on the back of the car that actually extends out to become the tail of the airplane. When it's extended out to its full size, the air car measures about to by 5.2 meters or six and a half feet by 17 feet. And when it's fueled up for takeoff, it weighs in at a thousand kilograms [00:01:30] or about 2200 pounds. While a traditional car feels like the last thing you would be able to fly the Kline vision team designed the air car with aerodynamics in mind that man using computational fluid dynamics to create a fully aerodynamic body with one third of the lift being generated by the actual body shape of the car. But while client vision wanted to create a fully functional airplane capable of flying across cities, they also had to consider its shape when [00:02:00] it was on the ground. Speaker 2: We can't, uh, fool the laws of physics. We don't want the wings to be too long and too, too large because we won't eventually drive on the road. And we want that air car to be parked in a standard size garage. Speaker 1: When it's all folded up, Zaja says the air car is about the size of a Mercedes S class and under the hood, it has a 1.6 lit a BMW V four engine, and it uses gas that you can buy at a regular gas station. So you can fuel this [00:02:30] up pretty much anywhere. The design is the brainchild of Stephan Klein Klein worked on his first aircraft design, the Aero mobile one in 1989, over the decades, Kline refined his designs before founding the vision company in 2017 and sending the air car up for its maiden flight. Three years later in 2020 in 2021, the air car completed its first intercity flight, an 80 kilometer flight from Nitra to Broda Slava in Slovakia. The [00:03:00] whole flight took about 35 minutes. And then in January, 2022, the air car passed another milestone when it was certified to fly by the Slovak transportation authority. Speaker 1: Next up Kline vision wants to move into the us. The company needs to get the air car certified by the federal aviation adminis in the experimental category. That'll allow them to start selling the air car in America in limited numbers from there, client vision will need to get a second certification to enter mass production. [00:03:30] So what's the goal of building a flying car? Well, this isn't exactly gonna replace your standard car. Think of it more like a much easier way of getting into the sky without having to drive to your local airport and get your plane out of the hangar and then gear up to fly. Speaker 2: It's extremely convenient to have your plane in the garage and to drive with a plane to a place you can take off and, and land. And meanwhile, go to a shopping smaller or golf course. Speaker 1: Now, [00:04:00] if you are not the kind of person who has a personal plane, just sitting in a hanger, that probably leads us to the next big question. How much will it cost for this kind of convenience? Well, Zaja says the air car will be in the same price range as a private plane. So about 500,000 to a million dollars, depending on modifications like leather interiors and special instruments, the company is opening up pre-orders in March, 2022, and Zayak says they already have about a hundred interested customers. So let's [00:04:30] just say you have that kind of money to spare. Will you be able to park an air car in your garage? Well, unlike your regular ground car, this one is going to need two license to drive and fly Speaker 2: The safety standards, uh, with the planes Aircrafts are much, much higher and stringent. So yeah, you need a pilot's license. For example, private pilot pilot license would be enough for you to fly, but you don't need to go to the airport to take off. Any owner [00:05:00] of land can give you permit to take off or land, Speaker 1: But while you might need your pilot's license to fly the air car, there is one bonus that you don't get with a small plane. Speaker 2: When the weather is bad, you just land and you continue on the road Speaker 1: For now. Kline vision is working on a two person single engine aircraft, but it already has drawn up for a three person twin engine model. And it hopes to introduce an amphibious model in the future. So where does the [00:05:30] aircraft fit in the future of transport? Especially when so many companies are pushing hard on EV to technology. Those are the electric, vertical takeoff and landing vehicles that companies like GM and Hyundai. I have been touting in recent years where getting a ride is a matter of climbing into an air taxi and shooting up from the top of a building in that future. Is there space for a gas powered car with wings? Well, climb vision thinks so Speaker 2: EV of vehicles are moving upwards and downwards most of the time. [00:06:00] And that requires a lot of energy. And also, uh, it requires a new infrastructure. Whereas aircraft infrastructure is built. You have 25,000 airports in the United States, Speaker 1: Just like a private plane. This is definitely going to be a vehicle for hardcore hobbyists or the ultra rich, but unlike all of those 3d renders we've seen of other flying cars, this one is actually real. And while the air car won't replace the standard car in garages across the world, you might see one in sky [00:06:30] soon.