Test flight of an Aeromobil flying car
Slovak Aeromobil, one of the most promising companies in the field of flying cars, announced its closure yesterday, after failing to raise funding to continue its operations.
Since the company was founded in 2010, it has raised 25 million euros, and flown three prototypes.
Among the investors in the company is the Israeli company Focus Capital Group, owned by businessman Meir Arnon, who is also a member of its board of directors.
in car mode.
The Subaru engine was said to be sufficient for 160 km/h (Photo: Areomobil)
Unlike some companies in the field whose vehicle is more like a manned drone, Aeromobile's vehicle was supposed to be a real combination of a car that can drive on a public road at a speed of up to 160 km/h and accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 10 seconds, and once it arrives An airport is able to deploy its wings, complete the configuration change in three minutes, and then take off for flight at a speed of 260 km/h. The
company's AM4.0 reached a length of 6.1 meters and a width of 2.2 meters, like a large pickup truck. Opening the wings makes it a plane with A wingspan of 8.8 meters. The power is provided by a hybrid propulsion unit based on a Subaru engine.
As a car it was supposed to be able to travel a distance of 1,000 km without refueling, and as an airplane to cover a range of about 740 km with a pilot and a passenger. It was supposed to To need extremely short runways, about 300 meters for takeoff and about 400 meters for landing, and thus be able to use even the airstrips used by light and tiny planes.
More in Walla!
The breakthroughs, the treatments and what does the future hold?
Everything you need to know about diabetes
In collaboration with Sanofi
She didn't have time to take off.
The 4-seat version (Photo: Areomobil)
The company previously promised to start delivering first tools to customers in 2018 and then in 2023.
It has already started procedures for obtaining a license from the European Aviation Agency.
A year ago it announced that in addition to a 2-seater model, it is also developing one with four, called NEXT AM.
For safety purposes, the vehicle was equipped with a ballistic parachute, which could be opened quickly in an emergency, as was done in 2015.
One of the founders of the company, Stefan Klein, lost control of the first version of the flying car, opened the parachute at a height of 900 feet and managed to stop the crash.
The vessel was destroyed, but Klein got out of it on his own two feet.
Classic flying cars like the Aeromobile seem to offer a perfect transportation solution.
But in practice it is a matter of limited freedom of movement: the authorities do not allow them to take off from anywhere, and the need to produce a vehicle that can function both as a car and as an airplane creates major compromises in the design, so that you get an expensive car with limited functionality, and an expensive airplane with mediocre performance.
The price of the Aeromobile was supposed to start at about 1.5 million dollars, a price at which you can buy an exotic sports car and a real light plane and be left with a surplus.
In Israel, the company AIR operates in the field and has already started unmanned flight experiments, with a tool that is planned to be much cheaper, about 150 thousand dollars
vehicle
car news
Tags
flying car
