A Japanese engineering company called SkyDrive has revealed a video which shows a manned compact vehicle which is fundamentally like a car. What's interesting about this car is the fact that it has compact propellers that hover it into the air making it basically a flying car. Now, this is not full evidence of flying cars that you would assume from science fiction fair like Blade Runner or Back To The Future or the Jetsons. But according to a report by AFP, the company does claim it is the first "public demonstration of a flying car in Japan".
While technically, it is an aircraft around the size of two parked cars - the video does show it circled a testing field for four minutes. "We want to realise a society where flying cars are an accessible and convenient means of transportation in the skies," SkyDrive CEO Tomohiro Fukuzawa said in a statement on Friday. SkyDrive says that it wants the vehicle to be available in Japan for purchase by 2023. Reports suggest that it could set you back by more than $300,000 which is more in the league of a Rolls Royce than a small Toyota.
This isn't the only car of its kind though. Volocopter, which is a German start-up, demoed a flying taxi in Singapore late last year. That felt less like a flying car but more like an oversized drone. However, the intend of both vehicles is the same - to beat traffic in choked cities.
In the case of Volocopter, they have already tested a battery-operated two-seater taxi. In fact, apart from Volocopter and SkyDrive the biggies in aviation like Boeing and Airbus are developing similar products alongside Japanese automotive heavyweights Honda and Toyota. Even Uber has been exploring flying cars.
