Flying Car Completes Successful Test Flight

Hollywood is a house of lies.

Back to the Future – and other films and TV shows – showed us flying cars that seamlessly transition between vehicle and aircraft. The flying Delorean was a car, first and foremost, and it looked like one. But real “flying cars” are planes that happen to be road-worthy. Great Scott!

Of course, that doesn’t mean real flying cars can’t serve an important function, especially in congested cities. And Tokyo-based SkyDrive Inc. recently completed its first manned test flight of their single-seater SD-03 flying car prototype.

Skydrive certainly isn’t the first company to test a flying car, but it is apparently the first to do so with official government backing and funding.

The SD-03 cruised untethered about 6 feet off the ground, and according to Skydrive, this proved that it could travel at low speeds for up to 10 minutes. The company is aiming for longer flight times by its planned 2023 rollout – about 30 minutes at 40 mph.

And of course, Skydrive faces untold regulatory challenges – drone delivery services ran into a buzzsaw of red tape, and the SD-03 is a great deal bigger (and potentially more dangerous).

“There are many more constraints, limitations and regulations on the design of flying cars than standard road-going vehicles, but I hope I gave it some charisma amongst those restrictions,” said Japanese car designer and SkyDrive stylist Takumi Yamamoto.

But the demand is clearly there – Skydrive isn’t the only company playing in this space. Far from it. So regulation can only hinder flying cars for so long.

Read more about the Skydrive here.