Stuck in Traffic? Just Fly

Flying cars are finally becoming a reality

“Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.”

Those were the words spoken by Doc Brown in the 1989 sci-fi movie Back to the Future 2 just before his iconic DeLorean took off and flew to the year 2015, to a society dominated by flying cars.

Fast forward to the actual year 2015, and Jim Dukhovny, a Berkeley graduate and former Yahoo! and Microsoft software engineer, is enjoying a meal at Coupa Cafe in Palo Alto with his friends, Dr Constantine Kisly, Pavel Markin, and Oleg Petrov. The four of them are coincidentally discussing flying vehicles and, just like in classic cinema stories, they end up sketching on a cafe’s napkin what would become the first real flying car.

Inspired by the meeting, the friend group founded Alef Aeronautics in the nearby city of San Mateo to develop their idea. In just a year, the start-up completed its prototype, and in 2022, the Model A was unveiled. Drawn by the former chief designer for Bugatti and Jaguar, this original model constitutes the first flying automobile capable of driving and taking off without the need for a runway. Alef CEO Jim Dukhovny states that, unlike other attempts at flying vehicles, Alef is the only one that can be called a car since it does not possess wings or external rotor blades, and can thus be used on conventional roads.

Indeed, from the outside, the Model A looks just like a normal car, its eight propellers hidden under a carbon fibre mesh that lets the air flow through. Its four wheels allow standard road driving, but it’s the two extra travelling modes that make it unique. The car can hover over other cars for short distances before turning sideways and propelling forward via the rear rotors. This unusual movement permits a more stable and fast flight, with the cabin rotating to keep the driver facing forward during travel. This all-electric model is expected to reach a top speed of 225 mph and an autonomy of 110 miles in the air or 200 miles when driving.

Public tests have, for now, been conducted only with the lighter prototype Model 0, with the first ever footage of it published this February and described by the company's CEO in an online interview as "[hopefully] a moment similar to the Wright brothers’ Kitty Hawk video." 

However, having received funding from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and permission from the Federal Aviation Authority, Alef is confident that official production could start by the end of this year. The company has already received over 3,000 pre-orders at an estimated price of £237,000 each, but Dukhovny also plans to release a cheaper, mass-produced model accessible to a larger share of people by 2035. This future Model Z should cost around £27,000, comparable to a normal car.

The major challenges Alef faces involve infrastructure and regulations. The Model A conforms to all traffic regulatory conditions, but new laws regarding flight have to be studied before flying cars can start freely roaming our skies. Nonetheless, Dukhovny affirmed that Alef had identified countries where their product could integrate into existing rules. The initial strategy is to focus the attention outside the US, and once the legal structure has been built, try to enter those states with free-er flight regulations such as California and Wyoming.

It might take time before Doc’s world of flying cars darting across the sky becomes a reality, but one thing is certain: the day when we will be able to leap over those never-ending traffic jams just by pressing a button is definitely closer.

Illustration by Alice O'Sullivan