Slovakian Flying Car Makes Short Test Flight

 A company called Aeromobil, based in Bratislava, Slovakia, released flight-test video of its flying car prototype, the Aeromobil 2.5. The vehicle, which seats two and can be driven like a car, has folding wings that deploy for flight.

A 100-horsepower engine drives the wheels for ground travel and spins a rear-mounted propeller to push it through the air. It is designed to cruise at about 100 miles an hour.

If the Aeromobil’s characteristics sound familiar, it may be due to similarities between it and another flying car under development, the Terrafugia Transition. The Transition, built by the Woburn, Mass., company Terrafugia Inc., is also more of an airplane than a car. But like the Aeromobil, it is designed to be driven to and from the airport and to complete longer trips when the weather isn’t safe for flying.

The Slovakian vehicle appears to be a few years behind the Transition in development, but its presence suggests there is a market for such hybrid road-air vehicles.

Flying-car designs have been coming and going almost as long as cars and airplanes have been around. Some, like the 1950s Aerocar, worked but never caught on, possibly because people considered them impractical or lacking adequate performance on the road or in the air.

Today the combination of lightweight materials, more efficient engines and more flexible rules in civil aviation could make flying cars feasible for a broader audience.