A new kind of road-legal flying car is now a step closer to hitting the roads, and skies, after its maker Alef Aeronautics signed an agreement with aerospace companies PUCARA Aero and MYC to build it.
The Alef Model A is designed to work as both a road vehicle and aircraft, with its aim being to beat commuter congestion, representatives say.
Styled as a “retro” flying car, the Model A will operate as an all-electric car capable of vertical takeoff and landing. When in flight, the chassis can rotate 90 degrees to become a large, fixed wing for aerodynamic flight, with the body of the car made from mesh, allowing air to flow through when in flight mode.
When the body rotates, the “cockpit” section of the vehicle stays in place to keep the pilot stabilized. “To have a good distance, you need good aeronautics, which means you need wings,” said Jim Dukhovny, founder and CEO at Alef Aeronautics, in an interview with CNN.
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“When you tilt, when you do the transition, you look like a biplane, you actually have two wings — a top wing and a bottom wing — which makes it incredibly efficient, incredibly battery efficient and gives it the long distance.”
Taking to the skies in retro style
Unlike other flying car prototypes, the Alef Model A is only a single-seater and therefore not envisaged as a taxi or passenger vehicle. In 2023, Alef Aeronautics told CNN that the vehicle would have a road range of 200 miles (321 kilometers) between charges, versus a flying range of 110 miles (177 km). On the road, it will have a maximum speed of 25 miles per hour (40 kilometers per hour) — below the minimum speed limit for highways in states such as Florida.
Engineers have been building this vehicle since 2015, the year that Alef Aeronautics was founded. While they initially thought they could build one in just six months, it wasn’t until 2019 that a pilot first flew a full-scale prototype.
The Model A is expected to cost $299,999 when it launches, and the company has received a reported 3,200 pre-orders to date
There is still a great deal of uncertainty over how easily individual customers can take to the skies, however. In October 2024, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced new rules for “powered-lift aircraft,” defined as “an aircraft capable of vertical takeoff, vertical landing, and low speed flight” such as flying taxis.
However, the rules state that only those already certified as pilots with a Private Pilot License (PPL), Commercial Pilot License (CPL), or Airline Transport Pilot License (ATPL) will be able to fly powered-lift aircraft. This means presently that Model A operators will need to have spent several months and logged a minimum 40 hours of flying time to attain a license before being allowed to fly it.
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