Few movie cars made us want a flying car quite like the DeLorean in Back to the Future Part II. Sadly, that remained movie magic. But now, my friends, the DeLorean name is taking to the sky for real with the DeLorean Airspeeder Team. It isn’t quite the flying car you’d expect, but hey, it’s a start.
Announced at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, DeLorean is entering the Airspeeder International Series as the United States team’s constructor. Its race debut is scheduled for November 2026, making it the series’ first American constructor.
Instead of following painted lines around a circuit, teams race electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft through electronically defined courses in three dimensions. Overtaking suddenly has another direction to consider.
For its debut season, the team will use the Airspeeder Mk3C, with DeLorean leading its design identity. So, no, the announcement does not mean a stainless-steel DMC-12 with folding wheels.
The engineering involvement expands for 2027–28, when a DeLorean Airspeeder will be designed with university student engineering teams across the U.S., including collaborators at UC Berkeley and Georgia Tech.
Aircraft styling, pilots, and the sporting program will be revealed before the season opener. No speed, power, range, or endurance figures were supplied.
For now, the important bit is that a DeLorean nameplate will be racing above the ground. That has taken rather longer than the movie led us to expect. Then again, at least it is ahead of the original brand founder’s nephew’s ambitious endeavor to develop a non-related DeLorean-branded eVTOL.
Images: DeLorean.
