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.
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.
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.
