World’s first flying car gets approval for test drive from FAA

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It looks like a scene straight out of the popular FOX cartoon “Futurama.” Yet, the world’s first flying car is anything but imaginary after a California company recently gained approval from the Federal Aviation Administration.

Alef Aeronautics, an innovative car company, has been granted a Special Airworthiness Certification from the FAA, the company announced in a press release. The certification allows the company to begin road and air tests for the fully electric vehicle.

“You can drive it…as you could drive any car, and then it vertically takes off,” Alef Aeronautics CEO Jim Dukhovny told NewsNation. “Eight seperate propulsion systems which can get you up in the air.”

The $300,000 fully electric, low-speed vehicle, dubbed ‘Model A’, has a driving range of up to 200 miles on the road and up to 110 miles in the air, according to Alef’s website.

Once up in the air, it rotates on its side with the passenger side becoming the top wing and the driver side becoming the bottom wing.

The company is currently taking preorders for the two-passenger Model A.

Flying cars: The future is now

From Bessie Coleman, the first Black woman to gain a pilot’s license, to the freedom fighting Tuskegee Airmen who flew bombers during World War II, Black Americans have always been influential to the airplane industry. Now, Black Americans have an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of the next level of commercial air travel with the upcoming release of Alef’s Model A flying car.

Founded in 2015 as a nod to the Back to the Future franchise, the flying car can travel on any urban or rural terrain like any other car. Yet it also has the ability to soar into the air for drivers who need to overcome an obstacle on the road or who simply want to reach their destination faster.

The vehicle includes a unique gimbaled rotating cabin design that allows the driver and passenger to remain parallel to the ground even when the vehicle tilts in the air.

“There will be still a while until everything is gonna be approved, and it’s gonna be on the road,” CEO Dukhovny said. “We hope to start production in 2025.”