World's first flying car

Mankind's primordial
dream of flight is taking off with a new twist as a
Slovak prototype of a flying car spreads its wings.
Slovak designer and engineer Stefan Klein has been honing his flying machine since the early 1990s.
"I got the idea to start working on a vehicle of the
future at university.
Klein told AFP.
"Flying's in my blood — my grandfather and my
father flew ultra-light aircrafts and I got my
pilot's license before I was old enough to drive a
car," said Klein, who has designed cars for BMW,
Volkswagen and Audi and now teaches at the
Bratislava-based Academy of Fine Arts and Design.
His elegant blue-and-white vehicle for two is six
metres (20 feet) long so it fits neatly in a parking
space or a garage and tanks up at any filling
station. But once it reaches an airport it can unfold its wings within seconds becoming a plane.
Dubbed "the world's prettiest and best-designed
airborne automobile so far" by US aviation magazine Flying and Inhabitat.com design, (an
innovation website), the Aeromobil also has the
distinction of originating in Slovakia, the world's
largest per-capita car producer.
"So far there have been about twenty attempts to
manufacture a flying car around the globe," the
president of the Slovak Ultra Light Aviation
Federation, Milan Ciba, told AFP.
"Among them, Aeromobil appears very viable," he
said. 'Make their lives easier'.
Other models include the US-based Terrafugia's
"Transition" flying car expected to be launched
on the market within a year, while the helicopter-
type Dutch PAL-V gyrocopter could go on sale in this year.
Klein's dream took to the skies in September when he piloted the Aeromobil during its first wobbly test flight.
Once airborne, the it can reach a top speed of 200km/h (124 mph) and travel as far as 700 km
(430 miles), consuming 15 litres (4 gallons) of petrol per hour.
"Although a combination of a car and a plane will always lose against competition when we start
comparing energy consumption"
Jan Lesinsky
from the Slovak University of Technology told AFP.
But would-be users could glide by long lines and
security checks at airports, saving time on medium-distance journeys.
Klein and his team are currently working on the
next generation of Aeromobil that will go into
production in a few months and hopefully receive Slovak Ultra Light Aircraft Certification (SFUL).
"Would-be users would have to follow the legislation already in place for ultra light aircraft"
SFUL president Federation Milan Ciba told AFP.
"Pilot/drivers will need to have both a driver's
and pilot's licence with at least 25 flying hours" he added.
An enthusiastic pilot himself, Klein remains down
to earth when looking to the future.
"I don't expect Aeromobil to go into mass
production, it will always be an alternative means
of transport," Klein said.
"It can, however, be very interesting for countries with vast areas lacking infrastructure like Russia, China or Australia," he added.
"It would make their lives so much easier — they
would be able to park their car/aircraft at home,
drive to the airport, take off, land and drive to their destination without switching vehicles," he