Multimedia

To the Skies and Beyond! Prototypes of Flying Cars and Taxi-Drones

Sputnik

The history of the development of flying automobiles started in 1936 when car-construction pioneer Henry Ford displayed an experimental single-seat aeroplane that he called the "sky flivver". Though the project was abandoned two years later, and, in fact, it was a light aircraft rather than a car, the public became very excited that personal flying vehicles would be mass produced in the near future.

At the same time, Mr Ford himself said: "Mark my word: a combination of aeroplane and motorcar is coming. You may smile, but it will come".

Since then, the visualisation of vehicles, including flying ones have changed and multiple hi-tech companies and car producers have put their heads together to provide people with their own flying cars or taxi-drones.

1 / 10
A test drive of a drone taxi in the Small Sports Arena of the Luzhniki Olympic Complex in Moscow. The drone, developed by a member company of the Moscow Innovation Cluster, is capable of carrying passengers and cargo by air up to 100 km.
2 / 10
Convair Model 118, a prototype of a flying car in flight, 1947.
3 / 10
Flying car PAL-V at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show.
4 / 10
The world's first manned flight on an electric multicopter. The flight lasted one minute and 30 seconds and was conducted by Thomas Senkel of e-volo on an airstrip in Karlsruhe, Germany, in October 2011.
5 / 10
The Bell Nexus 4EX, a four-duct electric or hybrid-electric air taxi, on display in the Bell booth at the CES tech show, Wednesday, 8 January 2020, in Las Vegas.
6 / 10
The Waterman Arrowbile, a tailless, two-seat, single-engine, pusher configuration roadable aircraft built in the US in the late 1930s.
7 / 10
AeroMobil displays their latest prototype of a flying car in Monaco, Thursday, 20 April 2017.
8 / 10
A model of EHang 184 and the next generation of Dubai Drone Taxi is seen during the second day of the World Government Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Monday, 13 February 2017.
9 / 10
A prototype of Audi's unmanned flying electric vehicle Pop.Up Next presented at the Geneva Motor Show in 2018.
10 / 10
A test drive of a drone taxi in the Small Sports Arena of the Luzhniki Olympic Complex in Moscow. The drone, developed by a member company of the Moscow Innovation Cluster, is capable of carrying passengers and cargo by air up to 100 km.
Discuss