In a surprising move, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a special airworthiness certificate to a vehicle that seems to be straight out of a science fiction movie – a flying car. The recipient of this groundbreaking certificate is a California startup, Alef Automotive. Their creation, the “Model A,” has been described as the first fully electric vehicle that can both fly and travel on roads to receive U.S. government approval. The certification permits Alef to conduct limited operations that include exhibition, research, and development.
The Model A is no ordinary vehicle. It’s designed to carry one or two passengers and boasts an impressive 200-mile range on the road and a 110-mile range in the sky. But perhaps the most remarkable feature of this vehicle is its vertical takeoff and landing capabilities. This means the Model A doesn’t need a runway to take to the skies or to land. And when it’s not flying, it can be driven on public roads and parked just like a conventional car.
Alef Automotive is a venture of four friends – Constantine Kisly, Pavel Markin, Oleg Petrov, and Jim Dukhovny. The quartet, inspired by the “Back to the Future” movies, started working on the project in 2015. After conducting a successful automated test flight of a skeleton version of the car in 2018 and flying a full-size prototype the following year, they were keenly awaiting the FAA’s special airworthiness certificate to continue their necessary research and development.
Speaking on the certification, Jim Dukhovny, the CEO of Alef, said, “We’re excited to receive this certification from the FAA. It allows us to move closer to bringing people an environmentally friendly and faster commute, saving individuals and companies hours each week. This is one small step for planes, one giant step for cars”.
The company plans to sell each vehicle for $300,000, with the first delivery projected for the end of 2025. It has already collected refundable pre-orders for more than 400 of the vehicles, with a cost of $150 for the general queue or $1,500 for the priority queue.
However, the journey is far from over for the Model A. It still needs approval from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to be roadworthy. Furthermore, as a “low speed vehicle,” it won’t be able to go faster than about 25 miles per hour on a paved road. But Alef seems to have a solution for that – “The assumption is that, if a driver needs a faster route, a driver will use Alef’s flight capabilities,” the company stated on its website.
As the reality of flying cars gets closer, it’s clear that we are on the brink of a transportation revolution. The sky’s the limit for Alef Automotive and its flying car aspirations.
