Modern-Aviation

Taylor Aerocar (1949)
One of the best-known flying cars even though it surfaced decades ago, Moulton Taylor (1912-1995) hoped to put his Aerocar into full-scale production. It came pretty close too, with five airworthy examples produced before the project fell apart.

Terrafugia Transition (2020)
Terrafugia is based in Massachusetts but owned by Geely, the Chinese company that owns Volvo and Lotus. Set up in 2006, there are already around 100 people working for Terrafugia, which aims to start selling its Transition soon.

Terrafugia Transition (2020)
Powered by a Rotax piston engine, the Transition can drive at 70mph and fly at 107mph with a range of 489 miles. Originally intended to go on sale in 2011 at $194,000, the latest price estimate is $280,000.

PAL-V Liberty (2019)
Dutch company PAL-V (Personal Air Land Vehicle) has been taking orders for its Liberty since the start of this year and it plans to deliver the first examples around a year from now. The design is based on the Carver One, which started out as the Vandenbrink Carver in 1999, a strange three-wheeled car that leans into corners.

PAL-V Liberty (2019)
Effectively a cross between a gyrocopter and a trike, the Liberty is powered by a 100bhp petrol engine in drive mode, to give a top speed of 100mph on the road. When flying, the engine’s power output doubles to 200bhp and the top speed increases to 112mph, but is happiest when cruising at 100mph.

Capable of cruising at up to 3500 metres above the ground, the Liberty can fly for up to 4.3 hours or 312 miles. One of ourwriters had a go in a PAL-V Liberty simulator earlier this year, and it showed promise. PAL-V hopes it will get certification in the next year or so.