Flying Cars Take Off!
Minnesota just became the second state to allow flying cars on its roads and airstrips.
© 2024 Samson Sky
This image shows what Samson Sky’s Switchblade flying car will look like in the air.
Imagine getting around town in a flying car! Minnesota governor Tim Walz took this dream one step toward reality in May 2024, when he signed a bill allowing flying cars on the state’s roads and airstrips. Minnesota is the second state to say yes to flying cars, after New Hampshire.
A few companies are building or planning to build flying cars, which can travel on roads but unfold their wings when they’re ready to take flight. Some of these vehicles take off vertically, like a helicopter. Others need a runway to take off, like an airplane. (Like airplanes and helicopters, flying cars can’t be flown without a pilot’s license.)
One example of a car that takes off on a runway is Samson Sky’s Switchblade, a three-wheeled car with foldable wings that can fly for about 450 miles (720 kilometers) at a time at an altitude below 10,000 feet (3,000 meters). (Commercial airplanes fly at an altitude of about 35,000 feet, or 11,000 meters.) Samson Sky says it will start building its vehicles in the next two years. Yet the company has already sold more than 100 cars, and about 2,400 more cars have been reserved.
© 2024 Samson Sky
See Samson Sky’s Switchblade change from a plane to a car and back again.
At this point, most people probably have never seen a flying car in the air. But that’s set to change, as more of the high-flying vehicles become available. More and more people will be able to buy a flying car or call one to take them somewhere, like a taxi or an Uber. Laws, like the one in Minnesota, allow these cars to operate. To ensure that flying cars are operated safely, these laws set rules about where flying cars can take off and land.
Flying cars aren’t just a dream. They’re part of our future.
