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Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, revealed what he’s calling a flying car during a livestream event on Oct. 15. The impressive display showed the two-seater sports car driving slowly up an inverted track, launching, immediately flipping around in midair, and landing gently on all four wheels, and then zooming forward from zero to 60 mph in less than a second.
To say this car is impressive or that the cool factor is off the charts would be an understatement. But we’re a long way from mom and dad commuting to work as the crow flies or kids riding the sky bus to school. Still, this does represent a technological marvel and at least some of the developments could change the nature of performance cars in the years to come – even if we aren’t all flying around like The Jetsons anytime soon.
More Than a Roadster
The Roadster was equipped with ten nozzles and “ultra high-pressure air tanks” that can refill themselves as you drive. Those are what let it accelerate so much faster than other cars – basically it has air rockets at the back. The others, though, act more like attitude adjusters on spacecraft. Those are what allow it to launch vertically into the air and roll around mid-flight.
But perhaps the most impressive part of the vehicle and the demonstration wasn’t the jets and the flying, but the fan system and the “sucking” to the surface. Before the car flew, it drove – slowly, meaning there was no real use of inertia to defy gravity – up a vertical ramp and held itself suctioned to the ramp with the car upside down.
How? There’s a powerful fan system that can apply massive amounts of downforce on the car – somewhere around twice the amount of pressure generated by Earth’s gravity. That, perhaps even more than the air rockets, is what may come to define performance cars in the future.
The Flying Car – Not So New
The flying car has been a dream – and a popular feature in futuristic science fiction – for about as long as cars have existed. But, in a sense, they already exist. What is an airplane or even a helicopter but a flying car? Sure, neither looks like a minivan, a pickup truck, or a two-seater roadster – but those big metal contraptions flying through the air every day all over the world are vehicles carrying people and cargo through the skies just as cars, trucks, and vans do on the ground.
In fact, if car designers, track designers, and drivers aren’t careful, the fastest cars in existence start to fly accidentally – and it’s bad when that happens! At a certain speed, the air moving under a car wants to push it up into the sky, and without any control over that process, it’s quite dangerous.
Still, a “flying car” that looks like a helicopter or a passenger jet isn’t the same as one that looks like something you could get a license to drive at 16 and maybe buy from a car lot at 18 with a reasonable down payment and a monthly payment for the next several years. But to be fair, that isn’t what this Roadster is, either. It may look like a car, but it will almost certainly be priced and regulated more like an aircraft. We don’t know what one will cost yet, but you can probably bet it won’t be something you can finance for $500 a month!
You can already run errands and go to work in an aircraft if you want – assuming you can afford it, that is. Just about anyone can learn to fly a helicopter and get a license. Then, if you have the money to buy your own helicopter, maintain it, and fuel it, you can fly it to the grocery store if you want, presumably.
Civilians are allowed to own demilitarized fighter jets and tanks, for that matter. But not many do because they are too expensive for most people to buy and maintain. According to DriveTanks.com, a website where people can purchase demilitarized tanks, “if you can own a tractor, you can own a tank!” So, if you have the $550,000 to buy one of their 40-year-old demilitarized tanks, head over and put in your order! Civilians can buy demilitarized F-16s, too – and they cost around $4 million. But the real wallet killer is the $1,000 to $1,800 worth of fuel just to fly one “economically” for a single hour. At full sprint, the F-16 empties its fuel tank in seven minutes.
Why It Matters
The Tesla Roadster with booster jets and fan system will hit production in 2028, according to Elon Musk. But the reason you won’t see them all over the roads any time soon is the same reason you don’t see people taking tanks, helicopters, and fighter jets to work, school, or the grocery store: It’s just too expensive and impractical.
As well, just as roads are heavily regulated, so is airspace. Flying legally requires a separate license and comes with its own rules. Still, at some point in the near future, these flying Tesla Roadsters will be on the market, and some extremely wealthy individuals will be buying them.
Setting aside the hype of the flying car dream for a moment, though, the use of the air boosters and fan system for on-the-ground acceleration, higher speeds, and tighter cornering at speed may be the much bigger news of this grand reveal. It still represents a technological upgrade in how we think about making cars go fast and stay on the ground while doing so.
4 Questions
The story, in brief
What did Elon Musk show during the Tesla Roadster livestream?
Elon Musk showed what he called a flying car during a livestream event on Oct. 15. The two-seater sports car drove up an inverted track, launched into the air, flipped around in midair, landed on all four wheels, and then accelerated from zero to 60 mph in less than a second.
How does the Tesla Roadster fly and stick to surfaces?
The Roadster uses ten nozzles and ultrahigh-pressure air tanks that can refill themselves as it drives. Some act like air rockets to boost acceleration, while others work like spacecraft attitude adjusters to let it launch vertically and roll in mid-flight. A powerful fan system creates massive downforce, enough to hold the car suctioned upside down to a ramp.
Why will most people not commute in the flying Tesla Roadster soon?
The vehicle will almost certainly be priced and regulated more like an aircraft than an ordinary car. Flying legally requires a separate license and comes with its own rules, and airspace is heavily regulated. It is also expected to be too expensive and impractical for everyday trips to work, school, or the grocery store.
What happens next for the Tesla Roadster with booster jets?
According to Elon Musk, the Tesla Roadster with booster jets and fan system will hit production in 2028. The first buyers are expected to be extremely wealthy individuals. Beyond the flying spectacle, its air boosters and fan system may have a bigger impact by improving on-the-ground acceleration, top speed, and cornering.
