After decades of only being seen in cartoons and movies, the flying car is finally here.
Dutch company PAL-V has opened preorders for the Liberty flying car, five years after the company demonstrated the first successful test flight of the vehicle.
PAL-V Liberty Flying Car Details
PAL-V's Liberty, the first flying car to be sold commercially, is equipped with two engines, one each for driving on the ground and flying in the air. Both engines are supplied by Rotax, an aircraft engine manufacturer based in Austria.
The ground vehicle is capable of producing 100 horsepower, with a fuel economy of 31 miles per gallon. It can accelerate to 62 miles per hour in below nine seconds, and has a top speed of 100 miles per hour. In addition, the two-seater Liberty only weighs 1,413 pounds in dry weight, with a filled up 26.4-gallon fuel tank to add around 160 pounds.
While being driven on the ground, the Liberty takes on the form of an enclose three-wheel vehicle capable of going 817 miles on a full tank, with a propeller that is packed tightly to its roof. To take flight, the Liberty's propeller and tail blades expand, transforming the vehicle into a gyrocopter.
According to PAL-V, the process of transitioning from a ground vehicle to an aerial one takes around 10 minutes to complete, and once in the air, the Liberty's top speed increases to 112 miles per hour and its horsepower bumps up to 200 horsepower, but at a lowered range of 310 miles on a full tank. The range, however, further drops to 248 miles when a passenger is onboard on the second seat. Maximum operating altitude, meanwhile, is at 11,480 feet.
As a ground vehicle, the Liberty measures 13.1 feet long and 5.4 feet high. When transformed into aerial mode, it expands to 20.1 feet long and 10.5 feet high.
The conversion from a car to a gyrocopter is mostly done through the Liberty's Semi-Automatic Conversion System. The driver, however, will need to manually unfold the vehicle's propeller, tail, and rotor blade.
PAL-V Opens Preorders For Liberty
As many would expect, the Liberty will not come cheap. There are two models for the flying car, namely the $399,000 Sport base model and the $599,000 premium Pioneer model.
The first 90 units that will be sold for the Liberty will be the Pioneer model, and once it sells out, PAL-V will begin selling the Sport model. For that extra $200,000, customers will receive at-home training, power heating, special detailing, and an electronic display.
Not everybody will be allowed to be behind the wheel of the Liberty though, with PAL-V stating that operators will need to have both a driver's license and a pilot's license. If you have these, or at the very least are willing to secure the pilot's license before the Liberty is shipped, securing a preorder will not need a payment for the full amount right away.
To preorder the Liberty Pioneer, a deposit of $25,000 is required, and for the Liberty Sport, only $10,000. The flying cars are expected to begin shipping by the end of next year.
PAL-V is not the only company involved in flying cars though, as Uber and Airbus have plans for flying cars of their own, with passenger drones set to take flight in Dubai later this year.
