Tour the first showroom taking preorders for Aska flying cars

[MUSIC] We're in Los Altos, California, standing outside the NFT Aska showroom. Now right inside there today for the first time, they're starting to take pre orders for the Aska flying car. Let's go inside. Take a look. [MUSIC] Here, on the edge of Silicon Valley, anyone with $5,000 can get in line for one of these. Obviously we're just looking at a scale model here, but startup NFT, which by the way is not related to non-fungible tokens, Since by 2026 there'll be delivering up to 1500 aska flying cars ready for the road and the skies. We set up the company is to solve the problem of cost of living Thunder guy. Kaplinsky started NFT with his wife three years ago. The idea isn't to compete with a lot of the Flying taxis we talk about on this channel like Joby or bell next. The ASKA, which means flying bird in Japanese is meant to be a single transportation solution air. Air taxi and us is a complimentary service. It's like a bus compared to a car. You park it in your house and you getting on and get your final destination with one vehicle. So you don't need to change. ASKA can utilize a very small airport Where we don't need terminals, where we don't need a lot of space for lending. Kaplinsky says the asker will be the size of a large SUV so it can fit in most garages. The idea is people who live outside major cities could drive to small airports then fly themselves over traffic to city centers. [MUSIC] Really any other destination within Askar's 250 mile range. Fully unfolded the Askar has a 50 foot wingspan. Six batteries power those six propellers with gas motors keeping them charged. The Askar can take off vertically like a helicopter just needs a space of about 65 square feet. But it can also take off using a more traditional runway. And that requires 30% less power, which increases the flight range. And the million dollar question, of course, is how much does one of these actually cost? Well, not a million dollars, but not far off, at least for now. That $5,000 deposit goes towards the $789,000 price tag for those first 1500 limited edition vehicles. Now that price includes pilot license training kuklinski expects ask us in a second production line will cost around $589,000 Followed by a mass production, where the vehicles will cost 359000. And that's where he says, the maths start to work in the consumer's favor. This vehicle enable people to move from city center, where you have, housing will cost million dollar and you can move to the suburb. 100 miles 150 miles were poor Vila, you buy a viola for $300,000. And yes, pre orders are actually starting to come in. We talked to a few customers who were first in line to put down those deposits. I just remember when I was a kid and watching cartoons like the Jetsons and going wow flying cars. That's awesome. Never thought I'd see it and now the future is now here it is. I think it's a little bit like buying a beautiful, high end sports car. It's something I mean, I just think it's gonna be fantastic and fun and it could still be riding around in a horse and buggy. But I think that this may be the next move and I'm ready. Just a few years ago people would say How can I get into a car with a stranger and that stranger will drive me somewhere, right? I need a taxi. And today we drive an Uber, right? And people with self driving cars, they say, how can I take my hands off the wheel? It's really scary. And today people do it in many, many, many cars already on the market. So I think it's kind of similar. You can't really stop progress. So it's actually very exciting to be part of it. As with any new flying vehicle, there's a ton of regulatory red tape that still has to be cleared before this actually becomes a reality. But it's worth noting that NASA selected the NFT and aska to be part of its Air Mobility campaign. To promote public confidence in technologies like this, Kuklinski says they plan to start test flights of a full scale aircraft sometime next year. [MUSIC]