Recently Samson Motors claimed that they will be launching their Switchblade, a two-seater vehicle with stretchable wings, by late 2018.
According to a report by the Daily Star, over 240 customers have pre-booked the model already with the company.
This flying sports car, by the Oregon-based company, will feature a retractable folding tail and will go as high as 13,000 feet. The Switchblade will be able to achieve a speed of 100 mph on land and a whopping 200mph in the air. Just like the speed, the vehicle's size will also be different on the ground and in the air. While it will be 5.1m on land, it would get larger and become 6.2m in the sky.
"In my mind, it needed to be something more useful, something you could use every day, not just something that you do on weekends to spend money. I realized that the future of transportation is in the air. You have The Jetsons, The Fifth Element, Star Wars, Star Trek—almost every TV show or movie that deals with the future sees us all up in the air. I was thinking that's where we're headed. But how do we get there? What's an in-between step that we could do now? Then I came up with the idea for the Switchblade," Sam Bousfield, the CEO of Samson, had said to Robb Report while explaining the concept.
The flying car, which will have three wheels, won't have the capabilities of landing or taking-off vertically. Instead, it would jump off the ground naturally if its wings are extended at about 80mph, informed Samson. The car will also have a parachute.
Also Read: Singapore planning to launch flying cars to avoid traffic
Riders will need a driving licence to drive this car on road and a private pilot's licence to fly it.
Other than Samson, Uber is also developing its own flying car, named PAL-V Liberty. Airbus, the famous aeronautical products developing company, is also working on a similar project of their own.
