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Check Out This Flying Sports Car

Back to the Future is here, friend.  This”flyable car” has gotten approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to start flight testing.  Think we’ll see it at Autorama next year?  Made…

Switchblade flying sports car

The Switchblade flying sports car

courtesy of Switchblade

Back to the Future is here, friend.  This"flyable car" has gotten approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to start flight testing.  Think we'll see it at Autorama next year?  Made by Samson Sky, it's called the Switchblade and it's more than meets the eye.  Imagine hitting a button and having wings and a propeller fold out like you were putting the top up on a convertible and slide back in when you're done.  It goes up to 200 MPH and 13,000 feet high.  It is considered a registered aircraft.  FYI: Don't expect a lot of trunk space, but watch this in action!  Amazing!

It's a 2-seater and is made for business and recreation travel. The Switchblade can go up to 500 miles on one tank of automobile gas.  George Jetson would love this.

Don't think you can just "Doc Brown" this and take off wherever you like.  You must go to an airstrip to take off and land, but then you can drive your plane home and park it in your garage. While it does not run on banana peels and pop cans, 500 miles a tank sounds pretty decent. It's likely to be priced around $170,000...Samson Sky is taking reservations now.

Switchblade flying car

Switchblade flying car

Are flying cars a new thing?

Flying cars aren't really new a thing (believe it or not).  The more high-profile ones these days are The Switchblade and the Transition. Transition is made by Terrafugia, which also owns Volvo and Lotus.  It has wings that fold up with seating for two. Tons of prototypes for flying cars have been around for decades and it is amazing watching this technology develop.

Commercial airlines fly somewhere between 30-40 thousand feet, so there wouldn't be a crossover in traffic (flying cars fly at 13-16,000 feet), but as these flying cars become closer to viable, what's the game plan for traffic control on flying car traffic?  Not gonna lie, I never thought that sentence would run through my head.  Clearly, traffic control wasn't a problem for Blade Runner, The Jetsons, Back To The Future, or a variety of Tom Cruise movies, but what about reality?  I'm a couple of bucks short of spending 170K on a flying car, so I guess it's not a problem for me... yet.

Donielle Flynn has two kids, two cats, two dogs, and a love of all things rock. She’s been in radio decades and held down top-rated day parts at Detroit, Philadelphia, and Washington DC radio stations throughout her tenure. She enjoys writing about rock news, the Detroit community, and she has a series called “The Story Behind” where she researches the history of classic rock songs.