How to impress your neighbors now that everyone has a Tesla

[ilovecornfields]

https://alef.aero/preorder.html
 

My favorite part is “if you want to go faster then 25 mph, just fly!”

[ArtVandelay]

I can’t imagine FAA not requiring a license of some sort…this isn’t a plastic drone.

[ilovecornfields]

I saw somewhere else that they were trying to get it approved using a drone pilot license. Hopefully they’ll be limited in altitude so we can stay away from them.

[EricJ]

Meh, Moller has been at it for fifty years and it'll be flying any day now.    I'm sure the people who pre-ordered in the 1990s are ready for the deliveries. 

https://moller.com/

 

[Sue Bon]

Imagine the  I5 and 405 freeways in Southern California with a few of these stuck in traffic. There would be piles of them scattered up and down the highways after crashing into each other.

[N201MKTurbo]

It would be just like this:

 

[Sue Bon]

1 hour ago, N201MKTurbo said:

It would be just like this:

 

Multipass!

[N201MKTurbo]

[Fly Boomer]

That was fun.  I just watched that movie again recently.

Little known fact:  In 2004, Forbes determined that Milla Jovovich was the highest-paid model in the world.

[N201MKTurbo]

1 hour ago, Fly Boomer said:

That was fun.  I just watched that movie again recently.

Little known fact:  In 2004, Forbes determined that Milla Jovovich was the highest-paid model in the world.

I’d let her come over to the hangar and help wax the wings…

[MooneyMitch]

22 hours ago, N201MKTurbo said:

I’d let her come over to the hangar and help wax the wings…

My preference would be having her crawl around underneath, waxing the belly skins 

[Sue Bon]

22 hours ago, N201MKTurbo said:

I’d let her come over to the hangar and help wax the wings…

Be careful....

VIRAL STATE : HIGH

[toto]

Pretty bizarre how this story has been picked up in the mainstream press. It sounds like Alef issued some kind of a press release saying that FAA has granted certification for the flying-car-whatever, and the takeaway is that if you have the money, they’ll sell you one today. 

I assume that the granted special airworthiness certificate is limited to flight testing, and this thing is decades from a standard cert..

https://www.newsweek.com/alef-flying-car-vehicle-how-works-faa-1810469

[N201MKTurbo]

12 hours ago, toto said:

Pretty bizarre how this story has been picked up in the mainstream press. It sounds like Alef issued some kind of a press release saying that FAA has granted certification for the flying-car-whatever, and the takeaway is that if you have the money, they’ll sell you one today. 

I assume that the granted special airworthiness certificate is limited to flight testing, and this thing is decades from a standard cert..

https://www.newsweek.com/alef-flying-car-vehicle-how-works-faa-1810469

All the FAA did was issue an experimental airworthiness certificate. A long long way from certification. Not to mention you will need a pilots license to fly it. They never mentioned that.

[ilovecornfields]

2 hours ago, N201MKTurbo said:

All the FAA did was issue an experimental airworthiness certificate. A long long way from certification. Not to mention you will need a pilots license to fly it. They never mentioned that.

Sounds like they’re trying to get it approved for drone pilots. “will most likely only be required to have a simple Part 107 drone license”

https://en.as.com/latest_news/alef-flying-car-what-we-know-about-the-first-car-certified-to-fly-design-technology-price-n/?outputType=amp

[EricJ]

1 hour ago, bluehighwayflyer said:

This is pure snake oil.  

It seems to have all the markings of hyped promotional marketing, perhaps to lure either depositors or investors.    This is why it reminded me of Moller, which seemed to me to be the same thing, and Moller pulled it off multiple times on the same project, even managing to take it public with an IPO.  

[Ragsf15e]

47 minutes ago, EricJ said:

It seems to have all the markings of hyped promotional marketing, perhaps to lure either depositors or investors.    This is why it reminded me of Moller, which seemed to me to be the same thing, and Moller pulled it off multiple times on the same project, even managing to take it public with an IPO.  

And they have an “SEC Dispute History” link on their webpage to prove it!

[Geoff]

Vaporware.

[N201MKTurbo]

2 hours ago, Geoff said:

Vaporware.

Building a human rideable battery powered quadcopter is quite doable these days. So they probably do have a flying prototype.

Convincing the FAA to let them sell them to the general public to operate in the NAS sounds like a pipe dream. 

[aviatoreb]

How fast is it?  Range?

[N201MKTurbo]

I’m thinking it will go like 40 or 50 MPH for 10 miles or so.

I also think if they do ever get this thing approved for sale, it won’t take long to litter the streets with dead bodies.

Let’s hope I’m wrong.

[Geoff]

No way this will meet the National Highway Safety crash regulations (too heavy) and be able to fly off the ground with more than a hamster inside for more than 10 seconds.

[N201MKTurbo]

6 minutes ago, Geoff said:

No way this will meet the National Highway Safety crash regulations (too heavy) and be able to fly off the ground with more than a hamster inside for more than 10 seconds.

Yea, they usually give it three wheels and call it a motorcycle, which has no crashworthiness specs. At least here you can get an OHV license that lets you drive a quad on the street under the motorcycle regs, even though it has 4 wheels. Not sure how that got through the regs. It was originally done to allow quads to cross highways to go from trail to trail legally, but the way it is written, they can drive down a city street at rush hour. 

I guess having the ability to leave the ground makes it an Off Highway Vehicle.

[N201MKTurbo]

I can see cities and states passing laws, if they don't already have them, that would preclude any aircraft from taking off or landing on a city street unless it was for law enforcement or emergency medical.

You could still pull into a parking lot and take off and land in another parking lot.

[haymak3r]

Meh. That thing will never see the light of day..

But, this may???

https://www.jetsonaero.com/

Would love to get my hands on one of those