when George Jetson graced the tube in his flying vehicle contraption, it tickled our imagination of a flying car. of course, this concept aren’t new as the world has seen quite a handful of attempts in making flying car a reality from as far back as 1917, but mostly did so looking too much like an aircraft than a car and without much obvious success. however, the Dutch-built Pal-V One has inched one step closer to a real flying car by combining a three-wheeled car and a gyrocopter. on the road, it is capable of getting from naught to 100 km/h in less then 8-second and maxing out at a 180 km/h top speed – making it totally capable of traveling side by side with any regular vehicles on today’s road while not looking out of place.
in mere minutes, Pal-V One can be transformed into a single rotor, gyrocopter that can take to the sky with just 165 m of takeoff runway and land with just 30 m of flat surface. doing all that while still having a road- and air-worthy range of 1,200 km and 350 – 500 km, respectively. well, it certainly sounds like a fantasy come true. never mind if it doesn’t look anything like Korben Dallas’ flying taxi in the Fifth Element, cos’ we are pretty content that flying car is going to be a reality by 2014. assuming we can afford one by that time. fly past the jump for a few more images and a video of this awesome near-future personal transport.
UPDATE [December 09, 2013; 03:19PM PST] apparently, the Pal-V One Flying Car is up for grab from Hammacher Schlemmer for a cool $295,000, which includes comprehensive training. however, do note that this vehicle does require you to have a valid Sports Pilot Certificate. special conditions and guarantee limitations apply.
