Slovakia-based AeroMobil has a new flying machine up its sleeve and it should make a worldwide debut soon. But unlike many other flying car concepts, AeroMobile’s vehicle isn’t meant to conquer traffic. Instead, the company wants its first commercially available vehicle to help drivers fly over areas of Slovakia with missing or limited road infrastructure, while still working as a fully functional four-wheeled car.
The company announced on Tuesday that it will be launching the car at Top Marques supercar show in Monaco on April 20, where finer details about price and performance specifications will also be revealed. Visitors to the show will be able to see the car for themselves until April 23.
The car sounds like a regulations nightmare, but the team is confident they’ll be able to meet existing rules. On the aircraft side, the company cooperates with the European Aviation Safety Agency under the CS23 regulation that covers regular and commuter aircraft. On the car side, the team is complying with category M1 of the European Community Whole Vehicle Type Approval scheme.
“Our team has over 60 engineers from nine countries and all of them have long-term experience with vehicle development and regulatory issues,” Stefan Vadocz, Aeromobil CCO, tells Inverse.
The forthcoming Monaco version.
It’s been a long journey to get here, with over 20 years of development to reach its current state. A prototype version of the car, dubbed version 3.0, made an appearance in November 2014 at the Pioneers Festival in Vienna. That version had a steel and carbon fiber body and was powered by a Rotax 912 gasoline engine, capable of reaching speeds of 100mph on the road and 124 mph in the air. When unfolded for air flight, the wings expanded the width of the car from five feet to 27 feet.
The version unveiled in Monaco will contain “hundreds of improvements” to both the design and engineering compared to version 3.0. The company will begin taking pre-orders for the newly-unveiled version this year.
