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Stefan Klein's The Klein Vision Flying Car, The AirCar

There has a lot of movies that features flying cars, it was all set in a not-so-near-future. However, that said future might be our present now.

Introducing, the AirCar.

The Klein Vision AirCar is a two-seat flying car designed by Štefan Klein and made in Slovakia. It was type certified as an aircraft in January 2022.

Slovak designer Stefan Klein is a Founder and CEO of Klein Vision. He devoted the last twenty years converting his flying-car dream into reality. Currently he completed the flying prototype of AirCar that has been tested successfully at Nitra airport in October 2019.

Professor Štefan Klein began working on flying cars in the late 1980s. Having developed the AeroMobil, he left the company to develop a new idea as the AirCar, and set up Klein Vision with colleague Anton Zajac.

Having graduated from Slovak University of Technology in 1983, Klein studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design (AFAD), and also at the École des Beaux Arts ET Design, Saint Étienne in 1993. Klein became the Head of Department for Transport and Design at AFAD. He is responsible for innovative research projects in cooperation with top automotive brands including Audi, Volkswagen and BMW. In 2005 he was appointed the visiting professor at Mackintosh School of Art in Glasgow.

The main fuselage of the AirCar doubles as a two-seat road car with four large road wheels. Styled like a sports coupe, it contributes 30-40 per cent of the total lift when in the air. For flight it is fitted with foldout wings and extending tail booms carrying a high tail. A pusher propeller is permanently installed between the fuselage and tail, and a safety parachute is installed. Construction is primarily a semi-monocoque of carbon fibre composite over a steel subframe. Over 20 programmable servo motors are used to perform the transition between road and air configurations. When on the road, the retracted tail surface creates a down force similar to conventional rear aerofoils.

AeroMobil I 1989

Power is provided by a 1.6 litre BMW road car engine, running on automotive petrol or gasoline and delivering 104 kilowatts (139 hp).

The prototype AirCar is of comparable length to a Mercedes S-Class saloon, at 5.2 metres (17 ft 1 in), and around 2 cm (1 in) narrower. Overall weight is 1,100 kilograms (2,400 lb).

AeroMobil II 1996

A second, pre-production prototype is expected to have a monocoque fuselage with a more powerful 220 kilowatts (300 hp) engine.

The design was type certified as an aircraft in January 2022 in Slovakia. It also needs approval as a road vehicle before it can be used as such.

AirCar, a dual-mode car-aircraft vehicle moved closer to production this week, fulfilling a key development milestone in a 35-minute flight from the international airport in Nitra to the international airport in Bratislava on June 28th, 2021.

The AirCar

According to one news Article in Bratislava, Slovakia, dated June 30th 2021, Klein Vision’s patent protected AirCar completed its 142nd successful landing in Bratislava at 6:05AM. After landing, at a click of a button the aircraft transformed into a sports car in under three minutes and was driven by its inventor, Professor Stefan Klein and co-founder, Anton Zajac to downtown Bratislava, cutting the typical travel time by a factor of two.

“Professor Stefan Klein is the world leader in the development of user-friendly Flying Cars.” said Dr. Branko Sarh, Boeing Co. Senior Technical Fellow. “The automated transition from road vehicle into an air vehicle and vice versa, deploying/retracting wings and tail is not only the result of pioneering enthusiasm, innovative spirit and courage; it is an outcome of excellent engineering and professional knowledge,” he added.

We are now in the future guys!!! According to The Economic Times, “No more Science fiction”.

Cheerio!

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