After receiving Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification, a California-based startup creating a flying electric automobile is currently accepting preorders.
According to a news release from the firm, Alef Aeronautics’ flying automobile has received a Special Airworthiness Certification, allowing the business to test it on the road and in the air.
According to Alef’s website, the totally electric car can launch vertically into the air with a flying range of 110 miles and is a low-speed vehicle with a driving range of up to 200 miles on public roads and fits into a standard garage.
The company’s “Model A” vehicle “can fly forward above the obstacles until a desired destination is reached,” according to the San Mateo-based business.
A distinctive gimbaled rotating cabin design stabilises the driver and the cabin.
Electric aircraft steer clear of traffic
Alef boasts that the vehicle can fly in any direction and avoid traffic while providing a “cinematic 180 plus degree view for safe and enjoyable flight.”
Customers may preorder the car, which will cost around $300,000 and accommodate up to two people.
The FAA “issued a Special Airworthiness Certificate for the Armada Model Zero aircraft on June 12, 2023,” a spokeswoman for the agency told Fox Business. The aircraft may be operated with this certificate for a few specific tasks, such as display, study, and development. The FAA has previously awarded a Special Airworthiness Certificate for a similar aircraft.
Alef originally presented the automobile in October of last year, and since then, it has received a “strong” number of preorders from individuals and companies.
According to the firm, the FAA is developing regulations for the takeoff and landing of electric cars.
Alef CEO Jim Dukhovny, who also co-founded the business in 2015, expressed his excitement about receiving this accreditation from the FAA in a statement.
When they realised that 2015 was also the year Marty McFly drove a flying vehicle in “Back to the Future II,” Dukhovny and co-founders Constantine Kisly, Pavel Markin, and Oleg Petrovwere motivated to try to build a flying automobile, according to the company’s website.
According to the website, Jim Dukhovny discussed the possibility of flying vehicles in 2015 during one of the Science Fiction seminars. But he lacked the technical expertise to handle such a challenging undertaking on his own.
The four got together at a café and started working on a flying automobile.
The accreditation, according to Dukhovny, “allows us to come closer to providing people with an ecologically pleasant and quicker travel, saving people and businesses hours each week. For aeroplanes, this is a tiny step; for vehicles, it is a huge step.
Another flying vehicle was just showcased in Dubai
The electric flying automobile XPENG X2 made its debut public flight at Skydive Dubai in October of last year.
The largest Asian flying car firm, XPENG AEROHT, a subsidiary of XPENG, is where XPENG X2 is housed.
After completing the unique operational risk assessment and receiving a special flying authorization from the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (DCAA), they performed their first flight.
