Flying-car company AeroMobil revealed its new model today, and is set to start taking pre-orders for the limited first edition run of the hybrid vehicle. The company had promised to offer a commercially available flying car in 2017, and this somewhat makes good on that promise, though pre-orders placed now won’t ship until 2020, since AeroMobil expects to ramp up to full production over the next few years and deliver starting then.
The AeroMobil does sound impressive on paper, however: It transforms from car mode to air in less than 3 minutes. It has around 434 miles of driving range, too, or around 466 miles of flight range operating at 75 percent of its maximum speed. Top ground speed for the AeroMobil car-plane is around 100 mph, while it can do around 224 mph while gunning it during flight.
AeroMobil is more emphatic about safety than speed, however — the vehicle has a lot of features designed to make sure it can withstand even choppy flying weather. There’s a parachute for emergency landings that will help the car float back to earth, and airbags are designed to help out in both terrestrial and airborne crashes.
It all sounds very cool, and plucked from a Bond film, obviously. This model was helped along by the $3.2 million in cash it raised from supply partner Patrick Hessel, and was unveiled for the first time today at Monaco’s ultra-fancy Top Marques auto show.
The price tag is fancy, too: The car starts at $1.3 million, so you’re not going to see a lot of these in neighborhood driveways.