Flying cars to take off? Americans want a parachute
San Francisco — Flying cars are beginning to look less like science fiction these days, with big companies and puny startups developing working prototypes. Nothing’s commercially available yet, but experts say highway vehicles with wings are possible over the next five to ten years.
A Slovakian company called AeroMobil unveiled on Thursday its version of a flying car, a light-framed plane whose wings can fold back, like an insect, and is boosted by a hybrid engine and rear propeller.
It will be available to preorder as soon as this year but is not for everyone: besides the big price tag — inbetween $1.Trio million and $1.6 million — you’d need a pilot’s license to use it in the air.
What do consumers think? Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle at the University of Michigan’s Sustainable Worldwide Transportation Program conducted a nationwide survey and found:
Almost two-thirds of Americans are familiar with the concept of flying cars — tho’, curiously, seventy eight percent of studs surveyed were familiar compared with fifty three percent of women.
The most likely benefit of flying cars: shorter travel time, according to three-quarters of those surveyed.
The AeroMobil has a driving range of about sixty two miles and a top speed of ninety nine mph. When flying, its maximum cruising range is four hundred sixty six miles, and it takes about three minutes for the car to convert into a plane.
“You can use it as a regular car,” said Juraj Vaculik, co-founder and CEO of Aeromobil, at the unveiling in Monaco. Tho’ it is not legal — yet — to take off from a highway.
About sixty three percent said they’re “very concerned” about flying car safety, but the other thirty seven percent said they’re not.
What about flying cars in congested airspace, or flying cars in poor weather? The breakdown is similar.
Flying at night? Not a problem. Less than half are “very worried.”
Several companies are working on flying cars, either like Aeromobil’s two-seater that needs a runway, or others that function more like helicopters, lifting off vertically. But not many companies are earnestly looking at marketing these vehicles anytime soon, Mawby said.
Most respondents — eighty three percent — would choose vertical launch to taking flight runway-style. (The survey didn’t ask, but earth-bound cars and truck drivers may feel even more strongly about it.)
Almost eighty percent said a parachute would be “very” or “extremely” significant.
SurveyMonkey polled Americans eighteen and older from its respondent database and received five hundred eight fully finished surveys. The margin of error at the ninety five percent confidence level for the overall results is plus or minus Four.Three percentage points.