Real Flying Car Prototypes That Look Like What the Movies Promised - Ace VTOL GT Slipstream, Alef Model A, and the Bellwether Flying Cars
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| Ace eVTOL GT Slipstream Flying Car. |
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| The GT Slipstream's next-generation Arc Reaction Engines. Images: Ace Vtol website. |
Especially when their flying car, the Ace eVTOL GT Slipstream, kind of looks like a regular car (in terms of size and shape) and has engines that look like they're straight out of a sci-fi movie.
Even more surprising is you can actually pre-order one of these vehicles. Ace Vtol has done a USD$250 million deal with Palm Beach, FL based Aeroauto, the leading retailer of eVTOL vehicles in the United States to sell the craft to future owners.
The GT Slipstream is described on Ace Vtol's website as follows:
The aircraft, named the GT Slipstream, is a two-seater flying “muscle” car that will reach speeds of up to 270 mph and will fly up to 300 miles on a single charge. The GT features a patented propulsion system, powered by four next-generation Arc Reaction Engines, and is able to transition seamlessly from precision low speed flight to high speed A to B flight with the push of a button. The GT is designed to deliver the highest levels of safety, comfort and autonomy thanks to its sophisticated sensors, software, and systems. The aircraft is available in ten retro colors and is scheduled for market entry in the United States as early as 2027.
It certainly sounds impressive if you can wait until 2027 at the soonest to get your hands on one. However, Ace Vtol was established in 2022 and, as near as I can tell, they don't even have a working prototype of this specific flying car... or even the engine for that matter.
I truly hope their engine works and this flying car comes to pass because it is one of the few flying car concepts doing something completely different.
The Alef Model A Flying Car
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| Alef Model A Flying Car concept image. Image: Alef website. |
I'm not sure how I feel about this one. At first glance it looks very much like a regular 'exotic' car. It's a proper VTOL craft that can fly like a giant drone but for more efficiency on longer flights the car rotates on its side where the mesh top acts like an airplane wing.
The car has a full size prototype that, according to the company's CEO, has been tested in short, drone like flights, but has yet to be tested in its side flying format - though smaller models have been tested in side flight successfully (no footage though).
The Bellwether eVTOL Flying Car
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| The Bellwether eVTOL flying car looks like it could've come straight off a movie set. |
Their video below certainly looks impressive. Very much like a future we were promised. One thing this flying car has going for it is actual video of, what looks to be a one third scale model, in flight as a proof of concept (you can see this toward the end of the video below).
To be honest though, the working scale model is giving off unwieldy, oversized drone vibes more than cool, futuristic flying car vibes. Hopefully they can scale it up and maybe chuck in some Arc Reaction engines from Ace VTOL if that company ever gets their engines working.
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Thanks to drone technology the flying car space has actually moved closer to being a reality. Specifically the ease of flight a drone has including its ability to hover in place. That said, we really do need to find either better propeller technology or some other method of lifting a flying car off the ground.
Current technology doesn't seem to be quite there yet to be able to maintain a standard four-five seater car configuration without installing giant propellers just to lift the car off the ground.
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