The world's most advanced flying car, AeroMobil 3.0, was unveiled today at Pioneers Festival in Vienna. WIRED first got its eyes on an AeroMobil prototype only a few months ago, at which point the unveiling the 3.0 model was slated for next year. But ahead of schedule, WIRED.co.uk has now seen AeroMobil 3.0 in person, which has folding insect-like wings and a spacecraft-cum-sportscar cockpit not only in the flesh, but in flight, thanks to footage released by the team today.

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"We get lots of offers from auto shows," says AeroMobil co-founder Juraj Vaculik. "We decided pioneers festival is so right for us." As much as they are designers and engineers, Vaculik and his partner Stefan Klein are also entrepreneurs, and their projects have been primarily self-funded.


Behind the development of the AeroMobil is the idea that people should be able travel freely, but the Vaculik says they have also been inspired by the idea they can free people from the "daily prison we are all in" -- that is the "traffic jam prison" and the "airport prison". This statement provides insight into the two primary applications of the vehicle -- overcoming traffic- and airport-related problems -- but there is a third, not entirely unrelated application too. "There are still a lot of countries where there is not an infrastructure," says Vaculik. Only three percent of the world has paved road and the AeroMobil team believes they have built the kind of vehicle capable of overcoming problems caused by lack of this infrastructure in many places.

One of the key features of the AeroMobil 3.0 is that it is fully capable of making use of existing infrastructure for both planes and cars. It only needs a grass strip of around 250 metres to take off and 50 metres to land. The vehicle has undergone rigorous testing and has even undertaken its maiden flight.

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To fly the car, you do need a pilot's license, but the pair claim that it is very stable and easy to control. Unfortunately, no matter how much you are willing to pay for the AeroMobil 3.0, the company is not taking any orders until it is sure it can start manufacturing them to standard. "We want to be a serious company.

This is not a boy toy -- we are not building a prop for a Hollywood movie," says Vaculik. The final price will fall somewhere in between the price of a supercar and a small plane, he adds.


The idea for the AeroMobil came straight out of Klein's childhood. "My father was a bit of a dreamer and we tested a lot of flying objects," he says. He was not very old at all when he realised that he wanted to make a flying car. Creating it, however, has been a 25 year-long mission with multiple challenges to overcome.

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It is important to remember, says Klein that "these objects are coming from absolutely opposite worlds. Aeroplanes need lift, cars need downforce." There are two options if you want to create a single product that is fully capable of the two. You can either, he says, "integrate two functions in one object or secondly you can use metamorphosis -- you can transfer from one position to a second position." Initially he tried the first option, but it is the second that has prevailed and moved through prototypes to become the fully functional AeroMobil on display today. "It's a really nice startup story. This story, like many start up stories, started in a garage," says Vaculik. Now the company only has 12 full time members of staff and after all these years have finally made Klein's childhood dream come true. Vaculik points that through their perseverance they have managed to create something that engineers and designers have been attempting since the early twentieth century. "We were able to achieve something that even today is amazing."