The Top 5 contenders
These are the most promising upcoming flying cars on our radar
Here are the 5 that really caught my attention. The criteria was: Looks, performance, range, accessibility, reality? Mostly looks at first, that’s what gets me interested right away when the thing looks so cool that I can’t deny it(sounds a bit sad but it’s true) I’ll dive in deeper to each one of these flying cars in later blog posts, but for now, here’s a little something to get your mouth watering.
Alef
Alef has been getting a huge amount of press after their announcement that the FAA granted a Special Airworthiness Certification to its Model A prototype. We have yet to see any ‘real’ videos, other than renderings and simulations. A lot about Alef is hush hush, but they are at the top of the list because of the amount of hype generated recently. The fact that it actually looks more like a car with a window mesh topping rather than a drone probably helps too. One more thing, you can Pre-order!
Link for you: https://alef.aero/
Lilium
This beautiful ‘Apple aesthetic’ inspired flying car beauty has so much redundancy that it is possibly overkill. But you won’t need to worry about safety, as any loss of motor is counteracted by 35 other motors. Yes, that’s right. The Lilium has 36 motors!
They also plan to have a huge 300m range - probably by counteracting the hovering with the built in wings. Also, six rounds of fund-raising, and $826.4 Million collected. Seems like it is really happening.
Here’s the link: https://lilium.com/
Xpeng X2
Here’s a nice looking flying car that has tried and true performance, after flying over buildings then landing, and flying over a river.
Xpeng Aeroht, which has raised more than $500 million, launched the first public flight demonstration of its EAV in front of crowds in Dubai last year.
Video link for Xpeng flying over buildings
Jetson One
This flying car takes its name right from one of the origins of flying car lore - The Jetsons cartoon. It looks fantastic, is a single seater, and seems easy as heck to operate. Comes in aluminium and carbon fiber, and powered with eight powerful electric motors. You can Pre-Order it for $8000, and it is one of the lowest priced flying cars we’ve seen on the market, at under $100k.
BlackFly
Update: BlackFly is now Pivotal Helix: https://pivotal.aero/helix and will go on sale early next year for $190,000.
This one created by Opener caught my eye - a few years ago when they did some public tests. It’s an eVTOL that seems to be progressing well, and it looks sleek and user friendly. The 2 ‘ground effect’ style wings will also help with the range of this vehicle (currently 20m). Recent news includes BlackFly’s first customer taking their order. Storage to sky in 30 minutes, disassembles and fits onto a 16’ trailer, and guess what - Pilot license not required!
Link: https://opener.aero/