Another flying car gets FAA approval for flight testing
The Aska-5 flying car
The FAA has approved another flying car for flight testing, this time for a flying car designed to also be able to do vertical take-offs if necessary.
The Aska A5 … has four wheels and four seats. Like the Klein Vision [another flying car proposal], it can take off on a runway if there’s one available. Unlike the Klein Vision, it can also takeoff on a very short runway, or indeed no runway at all, thanks to an electric VTOL [vertical take-off and landing] system that folds out at the touch of a button. And unlike, say, the Xpeng AeroHT [a different flying car proposal], it’s capable of transitioning to efficient, winged cruise mode to expand its range.
The A5 will look fairly ridiculous driving down the road, all propellers and struts, a clog with a dishrack full of cutlery piled on top. But when the main rear wing and canard fold out, it all makes a lot more sense. There are six large propellers, four at the back, two at the front, and in VTOL operations these will lift the Aska off the ground and allow it to hover. For forward flight, the two inner rear propellers can tilt forward, allowing horizontal thrust in cruise mode with the rest of the props switched off and the car’s weight supported by its wings.
The proposed price tag for the Aska-5 is presently just under $800K, though it will be a while before you can buy one. The company says it is doing both driving and flight testing, but provided no images or data of it in the air. Thus, a lot of work remains before you could climb in, drive from your home to an airport and take off.
The company says it has $50 million in preorders. If so, at least 50 people think this might be the real deal.
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The Aska-5 flying car
The FAA has approved another flying car for flight testing, this time for a flying car designed to also be able to do vertical take-offs if necessary.
The Aska A5 … has four wheels and four seats. Like the Klein Vision [another flying car proposal], it can take off on a runway if there’s one available. Unlike the Klein Vision, it can also takeoff on a very short runway, or indeed no runway at all, thanks to an electric VTOL [vertical take-off and landing] system that folds out at the touch of a button. And unlike, say, the Xpeng AeroHT [a different flying car proposal], it’s capable of transitioning to efficient, winged cruise mode to expand its range.
The A5 will look fairly ridiculous driving down the road, all propellers and struts, a clog with a dishrack full of cutlery piled on top. But when the main rear wing and canard fold out, it all makes a lot more sense. There are six large propellers, four at the back, two at the front, and in VTOL operations these will lift the Aska off the ground and allow it to hover. For forward flight, the two inner rear propellers can tilt forward, allowing horizontal thrust in cruise mode with the rest of the props switched off and the car’s weight supported by its wings.
The proposed price tag for the Aska-5 is presently just under $800K, though it will be a while before you can buy one. The company says it is doing both driving and flight testing, but provided no images or data of it in the air. Thus, a lot of work remains before you could climb in, drive from your home to an airport and take off.
The company says it has $50 million in preorders. If so, at least 50 people think this might be the real deal.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
If you go through the past 75 years of Popular Science/ Popular Mechanics, how many issues DON’T have a flying car proposal? I expect not many.
A cute concept that has no legs.
Self driving cars do not work perfect yet and they think a self flying helicopter would be better?
For 800,000 dollars I could buy both a nice car and a helicopter.
If they start building and selling self flying 4 passenger quad copters I would think they would be miles closer to adding a driving road feature to them.
Or spend a bit more and build a helicopter that uses a small car as the passenger, pilot area. Back into the flying part and fly off, Then land and drive off.
Imagine if in the future they hack one of these flying machines and plow it into a target of their choice. 4 people could equal a thousand pounds of explosives.
I would think that a true flying car would be able to transition effortlessly between the two and not have to drive to an airport to take off. To me it is either one or the other. We are not exactly there yet. Ducted fans, high output electric motors and high output reliable battery technology will get us somewhere near there.
$50 million in orders? Says the company.
This might have some civilian / state / military rescue or patrol application? But driving around town? Really?
I like this aspect of this vehicle however: “The Aska A5, the size of an SUV, is a drive-and-fly eVTOL that can travel by both land and air. The A5 is equipped with a hybrid energy system that consists of batteries and a range extender engine that charges the batteries during flight, utilizing readily available premium gasoline from existing gas stations.”
Related: “A while ago I identified this company, Joby Aviation, and its battery powered eVTOL (Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing) design as being a desirable and well laid out configuration, it technically and esthetically made sense to me. The high wing, the transitional power units that drive the specially designed and nearly silent rotor blades. A beautifully executed aircraft made mostly of carbon fiber that will transport 4 people 150 miles at about 200 MPH along with a pilot.”
https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/joby-the-future-of-air-travel
Choose one mode of transport and do it very well.
https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIF.QppCJ9x2DzQunVqeELYapg?pid=ImgDet&rs=1
Do you really think the government is going to let you take off and land in suburbia or even a Walmart parking lot?
It takes a bit of paperwork to even get a helicopter landing pad in your own property.
Local laws are the first that have to be surmounted then state and then Federal.
There are a hundred flying car concepts around the world and so far one or two have actually flown let alone be sold.
Electric aircraft are still a bit far off for now also.
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/largest-electric-plane-yet-completed-its-first-flight-it-s-n1221401
I like this idea
https://www.aviationconsumer.com/aircraftreviews/pipistrels-alpha-electro-electric-flight-realized/
No, not at all, that is my point.
A “flying car” is a fanciful concept that every young and old man wants, but is it really accomplishable as proposed? No.
This was one of the first attempts at the concept, but it went nowhere, literally.
The Moeller Sky Car: https://www.thedrive.com/content/2017/07/moller-skycar.jpg?quality=85
The Joby concept will be operational in the real world soon enough it is well on its way to FAA certification. Joby’s market cap at the moment? Around $6 billion dollars. And that and the proper engineering and technology is what makes something like a “Flying car” real. And there are many interesting designs out there, but most are one offs or very limited.
In the real world: “Choose one mode of transport and do it very well.”
The year after there are no road accidents, I will CONSIDER supporting flying cars. Idiots in two dimensions make me leery of idiots in three.
Search for J.Storrs Hall “Where’s my flying car?”
The whole sad story is laid out there.
When I think flying car….I think anti-gravity.
Press a Button it folds into a Briefcase