World's first fully electric flying car
approved by FAA; company now accepting preorders
Fox News,
by
Brie Stimson
Original Article
Posted By: Imright,
7/2/2023 9:35:32 AM
A California company that's building a flying electric car is now taking preorders.Alef Aeronautics’ flying car has been given a special airworthiness certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), meaning the company will be allowed to road/air test the car, the company said in a news release.
The fully electric vehicle (with a hydrogen option for a higher price) is a low-speed vehicle that can be driven up to 200 miles on public roads and fits into a regular garage, but it can also launch vertically into the air with a flying range of 110 miles, according to Alef's website.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
melkor 7/2/2023 9:43:53 AM (No. 1504102)
No thanks. My father always said, never buy a new make. Give it a couple of model years to resolve all the “kinks”.
18 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
VirtuDawg 7/2/2023 10:01:47 AM (No. 1504108)
Will be waiting for the first incident where one of these vehicles drops out of the sky onto a house or apartment complex due to mechanical failure, driver error, poor weather/visibility, high winds/wind shear, driver DUI, midair collision, or any number of other causes.
20 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
FunOne 7/2/2023 10:04:20 AM (No. 1504110)
The FAA ought to focus first on getting the airplanes operating smoothly on schedule before they continue to expand their bureaucratic overregulating.
But, like most government functions, the more they fail the more money they get to "fix it"..
15 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
paral04 7/2/2023 10:07:25 AM (No. 1504115)
We are going to have to have a heck of a lot of air traffic controllers and home owners insurance yo cover airplanes hitting their homes. Don't we have enough problems now?
10 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Jesuslover54 7/2/2023 10:10:21 AM (No. 1504118)
Extension cord manufacturers ecstatic.
11 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
slipstik 7/2/2023 10:17:29 AM (No. 1504125)
We currently use vehicles in a tightly controlled two dimensional space, hiways, roads, no passing zones, and all that. We are CONSTANTLY slamming into one another, many others, things, buildings, trucks, walls, posts, basically everything.
How in the hail are we gonna "drive" through an uncontrollable three dimensional space when we haven't even conquered controlled two dimensions?
Now THIS is population control folks. There will be no survivors.
17 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Skinnydip 7/2/2023 10:28:01 AM (No. 1504132)
This has all the hallmarks of a disaster. It’s going to need far more sophisticated electronics than a Tesla.
13 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 7/2/2023 10:50:46 AM (No. 1504149)
Yet another scam. How many of these "not very far from being startup" companies realize the burdens of maintaining an aircraft manufacturing business? Managing supply lines (long-term)? Managing suppliers("-")?
Managing customers? Once you get it into the public you have to support every single part in that vehicle for at least 30 years, and usually longer. It may look "cool" but it will come with a huge "crap" realization at the end.
7 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Venturer 7/2/2023 10:54:17 AM (No. 1504152)
I can just see a dozen of these cars coming to a traffic tie up on the beltway and taking off to fly over it.
Should make for a fun situation.
4 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
planetgeo 7/2/2023 11:02:53 AM (No. 1504159)
Talk about "range anxiety"!
8 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
czechlist 7/2/2023 11:06:25 AM (No. 1504162)
Will there be a helium baloon option to lift the monstrous battery off the ground?
4 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
DVC 7/2/2023 11:09:49 AM (No. 1504167)
I'm betting that actual deliveries of functional vehicles that do what they claim will not ever reach beyond single digits. I doubt that ANY of them will reach the air range figures on batteries. Range is controlled by "fuel capacity", which means battery capacity in an EV, and WEIGHT. The problem with batteries is that they are way too heavy for their energy content. Low energy density.
Add more batteries to increase range, and the extra weight decreases range MORE than the added batteries increased it. Losing game. If you thought electric cars were short range.....electric aircraft are capable of minutes of flight, like 15-20 minutes.
This flying car thing has been tried many times before and the most successful was Molt Taylor's AirCar which was FAA CERTIFIED, which is way beyond an experimental testing certificate. Taylor's AirCar was certified to the same standards as any Cessna or Piper - which is pretty rigorous.
Getting an experimental certificate....not hard at all. Getting certification like a production aircraft - FAR more difficult.
8 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
mc squared 7/2/2023 11:11:59 AM (No. 1504171)
That's the same car that was on the cover of 'Science and Mechanics' in 1933.
h
5 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
DVC 7/2/2023 11:17:34 AM (No. 1504177)
Re #3, the FAA has relatively little to do with actual airline scheduling. That is pretty much all on the airlines, although sometimes the FAA can make requirements which make it damned difficult to run an airline to the FAA's often unrealistic or unworkable requirements.
The current problem with a small percentage of airliners being unable to fly due to 5G phones interfering with their radar altimeters is purely the FAA's fault. The FAA should have held up approval of the 5G towers near airports until all aircraft were fitted with newer model radar altimeters.
But when the Transportation Secretary and FAA administrator (acting) know and care precisely nothing about aircraft....things often are messed up. SecTrans is more interested in "being a homosexual" in public than any actual WORK, and the FAA administrator is just some political hack holding down a slot, with zero knowledge of the industry.
6 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
DVC 7/2/2023 11:21:06 AM (No. 1504179)
The headline is VERY misleading. It is NOT "approved by the FAA" in the way that the statement is understood by most people.
What most people understand as "FAA approved" is actually what is "FAA Certified", and this experimental vehicle is FAR, FAR from that. Just approved for testing, and I am sure NOT over populated areas. This is a very cursory approval, and any backyard built aircraft can get this after a basic check to see if things like the wings seem firmly attached and there seems to be some possibility that it might be OK to test with a test pilot. NO passengers are permitted during this testing period, only required crew.
6 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
bad-hair 7/2/2023 11:32:59 AM (No. 1504195)
Described as a low speed vehicle. In every direction except DOWN.
8 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Luandir 7/2/2023 11:42:49 AM (No. 1504209)
Midair is not a place I'd want to be when the battery runs out. (See Coyote, Wile E.)
10 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
chumley 7/2/2023 11:44:02 AM (No. 1504214)
THIS is the future I envisioned in 1970. I want one. I'm headed for the sock drawer to get that 300k.
5 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
hoopsfan 7/2/2023 11:45:32 AM (No. 1504217)
Paging Mr. Jetson, George Jetson.
5 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
Twinkle93 7/2/2023 12:00:10 PM (No. 1504229)
The old saying "What goes up, must come down." may still be valid.
4 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
Safari Man 7/2/2023 12:57:47 PM (No. 1504265)
Safer than a home made submarine!
4 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
formerNYer 7/2/2023 1:00:23 PM (No. 1504268)
What could possibly go wrong??
5 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
Rivetjoint 7/2/2023 1:17:34 PM (No. 1504274)
One of these long promised gee whiz flying machines makes me think of that old aviation observation - it's better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than being in the air wishing you were on the ground.
4 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
JHHolliday 7/2/2023 2:08:57 PM (No. 1504310)
Actually, #4, your Homeowners Policy already covers aircraft crashes. I doubt too many people will have the means to fly one of these but if they became popular, I wouldn't want to be commuting to a big city with the skies full of these things. Maybe technology will come up with some collision avoidance app. If not, you are right,we would need another million air traffic controllers.
2 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
jj1319 7/2/2023 2:23:11 PM (No. 1504322)
#8 Companies depend on the "spare parts" business. Very lucrative.
3 people like this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
Zeek Wolfe 7/2/2023 2:37:37 PM (No. 1504334)
You want to see $50k deposit money disappear in a flash, put it down for this electric car. Club Fed is filled with would-be entrepreneurs proclaiming the next miracle procedure, invention or device.
4 people like this.
Reply 27 - Posted by:
Hermit_Crab 7/2/2023 2:54:11 PM (No. 1504347)
Gee, I'll send in my deposit as soon as I can sell my Solyndra stock, or get the money the Nigerian Prince said he is sending.
5 people like this.
Reply 28 - Posted by:
cor-vet 7/2/2023 4:10:06 PM (No. 1504389)
When a lithium battery runs out of power, it's instantaneous. That will come as a surprise to these would be pilots.
3 people like this.
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