Flying Cars Already Exist: Alef Car Flies in the City
Alef Aeronautics founder Evgeny Dukhovny reported on his social networks that on Tuesday, February 18, the news program “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” showed for the first time a video of the flying car that his technology startup is developing.
This startup already has a certificate from the American FAA, allowing it to test the flying electric car and even operate it. Model A can travel about 350 km on the road without recharging, and its air routes can be up to 176 km long. In a new video, Alef Model A “flying around” a Lexus crossover parked on a section of public road in California, literally flying over it and landing on the road after this improvised obstacle. From the outside, this looks somewhat unrealistic, but the swaying of the flying electric car’s body and the clouds of dust it raises suggest that such a flight actually took place in reality.
The test was conducted under strict safety precautions, including road closures during flight tests, no people under or near the flight path, low population density around the flight path, and the presence of safety equipment and personnel. The test was successfully completed without any safety issues.
A special ultra-light version of the Alef Model Zero prototype was used. Alef has achieved both weight reduction and structural integrity improvements in the past year.
