Skip to main content

Avoid Slovakian traffic jams like a champ with the Aeromobile 2.5 flying car prototype

aeromobil flying car prototype crash lands during test flight aeromobile 3 0 rendering
Would you want to pilot a plane that looks like a Smart car with wings? Image used with permission by copyright holder

Would you buy a flying car? How about one from Slovakia?

This Eastern European country isn’t known for its car industry, which might explain why it birthed such an outlandish vehicle.

Recommended Videos

The Aeromobil 2.5 made its first test flight this week, a culmination of more than two decades of development. Aeromobil co-founder and chief designer Štefan Klein started with the 1.0 back in 1990, and hopes to begin selling the 3.0 production model (rendering above) soon.

Like the Terrafugia Transition, the Aeromobil is more plane than car. After landing, the wings fold behind the cabin, along a boom that houses the propellor shaft.

The rear-mounted propeller is driven by a Rotax 912 aircraft engine – the same one used in the Transition. In the air, the Aeromobil will reach a top speed of 124 mph. That top speed, however, drops to around 100 mph when the wheels are on the ground.

Terrafugia says the Transition will top out at 100 mph in the air and 65 mph on the ground. It looks like the Aeromobil is the sports car of the pair.

Aeromobile 2.5 flying carThe chassis (fuselage?) is composed of a steel frame with carbon fiber bodywork. Aeromobil says its creation weighs 992 pounds empty.

Maximum flying range is 430 miles, or 310 miles in driving mode.

Since the production Aeromobil 3.0 is still a ways off, the company isn’t talking price. Buyers will have to factor in the cost of flying lessons if it ever make it to the United States, though.

According to science-fiction, flying cars are a harbinger of the future. Road-legal aircraft like the Aeromobil and Transition will help us find out if that’s a future we actually want.

(Photos Copyright by Aeromobil.com, only licensed photographer: nocarnofun)

Stephen Edelstein
Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…
Honda unveils sleek electric sedan and SUV prototypes at CES 2025
Honda 0 Saloon and Honda 0 SUV prototypes.

Honda’s next-generation electric vehicles are a step closer to production. At CES 2025, the automaker unveiled prototypes of the 0 Saloon and 0 SUV, the first two of its 0 Series EVs that will start rolling off assembly lines in Ohio next year.

The two EVs follow 0 Series concept cars Honda unveiled at CES 2024. These are closer to what buyers can expect to see in showrooms, hence the label of “prototype” rather than “concept.” How close exactly? When Honda unveils a prototype, that vehicle generally makes the transition to production with minimal changes. But that would be particularly remarkable here.
They still look like concept cars

Read more
Digital Trends’ Top Tech of CES 2025 Awards
Top Tech of CES

Las Vegas is overrun. Every billboard in town is shouting about AI, hotel bar tops now sport a sea of laptops, and after hours The Strip is elbow to elbow with engineers toting yard-long beers.

That means CES, the year’s biggest tech bacchanalia, has come to town, and Digital Trends editors have spent the last four days frolicking among next year’s crop of incredible TVs, computers, tablets, and EVs. We’re in heaven.

Read more
Sony and Honda’s Afeela 1 EV makes more sense at CES than in the real world
Afeela 1 front quarter view.

The Sony car is almost here. After its creation via a joint venture with Honda in 2022 and two years’ worth of prototypes, the electronics giant’s Afeela brand is finally taking reservations for its first electric vehicle, with deliveries scheduled to start in 2026.

But will it be worth the wait? Coinciding with the opening of reservations, Sony Honda Mobility brought updated prototypes of the Afeela 1 (as it’s now officially known) to CES 2025, representing what California customers (Afeela is only taking reservations in that state) who put down a $200 refundable deposit can expect when they take delivery.

Read more