We have seen and heard many companies that are in the business of developing flying cars, but only a handful actually carried manned flight. Japan’s SkyDrive Project SD-03 is one of them that recently did so.
![Japan’s SkyDrive Demoed Manned Flying Car](https://d2cdo4blch85n8.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Japans-SkyDrive-Demoed-Manned-Flying-Car-image-1-1024x576.jpg)
But of course, the flying car we are talking about here is not anything like Matt Trekker’s Thunderhawk or Back to the Future II DeLorean Time Machine.
Our real-world flying cars are really more like, well, just short-range aircraft or electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle. The closest thing to sci-fi flying car would be, IMHO, Pal-V.
Anyways, SkyDrive has been developing the version of short-range urban air transportation for a while now and on Friday, they posted a video of a manned flight with the SkyDrive Project SD-03.
![Japan’s SkyDrive Demoed Manned Flying Car](https://d2cdo4blch85n8.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Japans-SkyDrive-Demoed-Manned-Flying-Car-image-2-1024x576.jpg)
As you see, SkyDrive’s “flying car” is, like most so-called “flying cars” out there, essentially a large scale drone or multicopter.
The lightweight air vehicle managed to take to the air (not skies, as it kind of move around at a meter to 2 (3.3-6.6 feet) off the ground) in manned flight demonstration.
While it was a milestone, this flying car is far from reality.
The company hopes its flying car will become a reality by 2023. At this point, there are a few challenges to handle. Challenges like flight time and very critically, safety. As of now, SkyDrive SD-03 can do 10 minutes of flight.
Images: SkyDrive.
Source: TechXplore.