Only 25 Years Late!
If, like me, you’re in your seventh, eighth or ninth decade, you may remember in your youth dreaming about it would be like in the year 2000.
In researching this article, I came across some cool retro pictures of what the year 2000 might look like. I’ve placed them at the end of this story.1
In the mid-1960s I remember dreaming about the year 2000. It was going to be wonderful. We were going to be walking on the moon. We’d have picture phones and 3D television. TVs might be as big as 30 inches! Supersonic airplanes would let us fly to Europe in minutes.
But what my friends and I all were most excited about was... FLYING CARS! Yes, by the year 2000 we’d be able to walk out the front door, hop in the car and zoom above all the traffic on the streets. Man-o-man life in 2000 is going to be great!
And imagine the disappointment of all us youthful fabulists when, in about 1992 we realized that it was never going to happen.
Well, now it looks like it finally may. Just 25 years late.
Alef Aeronautics (Alef), based in San Mateo, California, has received a Special Airworthiness Certificate from the FAA for its Model A, highlighting its innovative design and potential for commercial viability in personal and urban mobility.
The company has seen an impressive number of pre-orders for its two-seater eVTOL vehicle, Model A, with plans to develop a four-seater sedan, Model Z, by 2035.
Alef, backed by Space-X and specializing in the production of flying cars, has received a number of pre-orders for its electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicle. The firm is backed by Tesla investor and venture capitalist Tim Draper, which has helped draw attention. Alef is allowing customers to pre-order its two-seater flying car, the Alef Model A, online with a $150 deposit.
Sign me up!
The car is expected to be priced at around $300,000 when it becomes commercially available. Jim Dukhovny, Alef’s CEO, stated: “As of today we have a little bit more than 2,850 pre-orders with deposits down, which makes it the bestselling aircraft in history, more than Boeing, Airbus, Joby Aviation and most of the eVTOLs combined.”
$300K? Ok, maybe I don’t need it that much!
Alef is also developing a four-passenger sedan called the Model Z. It is expected to become commercially available for the much lower price of $35,000, by 2035. Cool! With the current rate of inflation, that’s about $999.95 today. I can afford that.
The $300K Model A looks like a futuristic car. They use a mesh shell to cover rotors, allowing air to flow through the car.
Dukhovny, the Alef CEO said, “…we always had the idea that [the Model A] has to be a car, a physical car, a regular car, as you can see it’s an eVTOL, an electric car. a regular car, drive, park, look, everything as a car, and a vertical take-off.”
That the Model A was issued with a Special Airworthiness Certificate by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in July 2023 is no small feat. The certificate allows the company to fly its Model A in limited locations for exhibition, research and development.
But Alef isn’t the only company nearing production of a flying car:
The eVTOL producer Joby Aviation is constructing a manufacturing plant at Dayton International Airport in Ohio. The company hopes to begin producing up to 500 aircraft a year at Dayton, starting in 2025. Joby is focused on the flying taxi market, designing a tiltrotor eVTOL to carry a pilot and four passengers at speeds of 200 mph. The company has already announced a partnership with Delta Airlines and expects to launch in cities such as New York and Los Angeles by as early as 2025.
The German start-up Lilium is developing an eVTOL to serve as an air taxi for up to five people, with a range of around 300 km and a top speed of 300 Kmh. In December, Lilium signed a memorandum of understanding with the air carrier Lufthansa to explore a strategic partnership on eVTOL aircraft operation in Europe. The two companies plan to explore ground and flight operations, future aircraft maintenance, as well as crewing and flight training.
Who knew the year 2000 was so close!