The idea of a car that turns into a plane in three minutes sounds like a dream. Imagine you’re driving along during peak hour. You get an alert of incoming traffic and shapeshift into an aircraft that takes to the skies, overtaking commuter delays, toll bridges, and construction delays — suck it, gridlock! But the reality of the flying car (aka air car) is a lot less spontaneous and a lot less flexible.
And I’m here to burst your bubble following the news of Samson Sky’s successful FAA inspection.
This week, after 14 years of design, R&D, and fundraising, Samson Sky, creators of the Switchblade flying car, announced that after an inspection by an FAA agent, the vehicle successfully completed high-speed taxi testing and is ready to take flight.
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Specifically, the company repeated high-speed acceleration runs down the runway up to take-off speed. It also:
“Tested the brakes as well, yanking the vehicle to a stop repeatedly at the end of each run from up to 87 mph.”
Even Klein Vision’s AirCar flying car, which promises to hit the sky in two years, only has a Certificate of Airworthiness from the Slovak Transport Authority. This means that once available commercially, you can only fly it in Slovakia.
Samson plans to manufacture a certified Switchblade in the future, claiming that the current design is almost compliant. However, this will drastically increase the price.
It’s not green
My biggest gripe with the Switchblade flying car is that it uses gasoline as a primary energy source. Considering that the urban air mobility movement aims to get people out of their cars and into more sustainable modes of transport, this is a big fat fail. Air mobility is supposed to advance sustainable transport, not add clutter.
But, Samson is working extremely hard to provide the necessary infrastructure to make the dream a reality. Let’s face it, this is a hugely appealing hobby project for aviation enthusiasts with the appropriate licenses and construction skills who live close to a certified airport. For the rest of us, don’t hold your breath.