#HTE

Here’s Video of a Flying Car–Actually Flying

We’ve all seen tons of flying car prototypes and concepts, but video of them actually flying–including take-off and landing–are pretty rare.

Well, KleinVision has just released footage of their supercar-like Aircar taking its maiden flight, which looks pretty darn compelling:

I’d like to see longer/continuous shots of the take-off and landing without the editing, but I guess this is the best we could hope for. In any case, I’m sure you were as fascinated as I was with how the wings deploy. Here’s a closer look at an animation showing how it works:

One practical design issue with a flying car, that only occurred to me after watching the video, is that of the canopy. Ideally it should be electrochromic (though I don’t know if you can pull that off with curved glass). Because while you want the full transparency and visibility during flight, on the ground you’d certainly want it tinted–can you imagine driving around in say, Arizona in July with that transparent top?