Skip to main content

PAL-V unveils ‘world’s first production model flying car’

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is no longer just the stuff of children’s fiction, according to a Dutch company. Although sceptics suggest that flying cars will remain fantasy for many years to come, PAL-V has revealed the Liberty Pioneer, which it says is the world's first production model. At the Geneva International Motor Show, the company claimed that it is built for “those that want to be part of a unique group that writes history with us”. That ‘unique group’ will almost certainly need deep pockets: just
March 7, 2019 Read time: 2 mins

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is no longer just the stuff of children’s fiction, according to a Dutch company.

Although sceptics suggest that flying cars will remain fantasy for many years to come, PAL-V has revealed the Liberty Pioneer, which it says is the world's first production model.

At the Geneva International Motor Show, the company claimed that it is built for “those that want to be part of a unique group that writes history with us”.

That ‘unique group’ will almost certainly need deep pockets: just 90 of the limited edition Liberty Pioneer model will be made and the price of the vehicle has not been released. "Although more and more flying concepts are announced, only a handful of companies work on a real flying car: one that can both fly and drive, ideal for city-to-city mobility,” says Mike Stekelenburg, chief engineer at PAL-V.

“The combination offers unprecedented freedom: personal door-to-door flying mobility. The gyroplane principle not only provides us with a safe and easy-to-operate flying car but it also enables us to make it compact and within existing regulations, which is the most important factor to build a useable flying car,” he adds.

The vehicle has a dual control cockpit and electronic flight instrument system.

Related Content

  • November 30, 2023
    Dubai plans to be 'world’s most bike-friendly city' by 2040
    URB consultancy aims to shift city where car is king to one that rivals Amsterdam
  • June 12, 2019
    ETSC says road safety is ‘vicious circle’
    Urban road safety is a key problem in Europe, an issue that needs to be addressed as a priority. That is the finding of a new report by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC). The ETSC’s report reveals that road deaths on urban roads decreased at around half the rate of those on rural roads over the period 2010-2017. The report also shows that vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, account for 70% of those killed and seriously injured on urban roads. Dovilė Adminait
  • February 1, 2012
    Cooperative systems and privacy not mutually exclusive
    Are co-operative systems and personal privacy mutually exclusive? Not necessarily, says Neil Hoose. But the more advanced the application, the greater the concession of privacy may have to become. ITS Stockholm in 2009 and the Cooperative Mobility Showcase event which took place alongside Intertraffic in Amsterdam in March this year both featured live, on-street demonstrations of safety and driver information applications that used Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) and Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communications,
  • February 6, 2012
    Cooperative systems and privacy not mutually exclusive
    Are co-operative systems and personal privacy mutually exclusive? Not necessarily, says Neil Hoose. But the more advanced the application, the greater the concession of privacy may have to become