At the Monaco Top Marques show, there were Ferrari’s, Rolls Royce’s, Aston Martin’s, everything to please the eye of luxury car enthusiasts ; but we came specifically to see a car that stood out amongst all rest : the Aeromobil.
We have already featured this two-seater car that can deploy its wings and take-off like an airplane. Mounted on four 17-inch tyres, it has clean lines - as beautiful as they are aerodynamic - but what’s the interior is like ?
Stefan Vadocz, CCO - Aeromobil : ‘‘Let’s have a look at the interior of the Aeromobil. You have both a steering wheel and a flight yoke, so during the landing, you’ve got to changeover from the flight yoke to the steering wheel before you can start breaking. For safety reasons, we have a parachute deployment system in the vehicle which brings the entire vehicle down safely in emergency situations. Because this is a test vehicle, on the righthand side of the cockpit, you see a lot of road-to-air transformation mode buttons, in the final version, all of these will be replaced by just one button for the vehicle transformation.’’
By using just one single button to deploy and lock the the wings into place, ready for take-off, propulsion is then transferred from the road wheels to a pusher propeller at the rear of the ‘plane. This prototype uses an 80 horsepower Rotax 912 engine, but the patent on its transmission system is pending, so we were not allowed to film the interior of the engine housing.
Just like Prince Albert of Moncao, who came to see the the Aeromobil on the opening day, visitors to the show fell completely under the spell of the flying car.
The next Aeromobil visit to the Top Marques show could well be by air. Its designers, who are still awaiting certification of their flying car, are planning to market it during the next two years, at a cost of some several hundred thousand euros.
