Flying Car Crashes During Test Flight A flying car crashed during a test flight in Slovakia
on Friday. The Aeromobil car was piloted by Stefan Klein, a co-founder of the
company. Klein was able to deploy a parachute for the vehicle, which is said to
have helped ease the severity of the impact.
Witnesses near the Nitra
Janíkovce airport described seeing the flying car go into a tailspin before the
parachute was deployed. Klein was taken to the hospital and released without any
serious injuries. However, the flying car wasn't so lucky. Judging by the photos
taken at the scene, the vehicle sustained fairly serious damage.
If the
Aeromobil name sounds familiar, that's because it has been the Great Flight Hope
of flying car nerds recently. The vehicle has been featured prominently in
magazines and newspapers around the world, with promises that the flying car is
now just around the corner. The company has even claimed that they could release
the vehicle by 2017.
For what it's worth, the company is putting on a
brave public face, saying that crashes are all part of the struggles to get
experimental vehicles operational.
"The detailed data and overall
experience from this test flight will be thoroughly analyzed and the results
will be used in the ongoing R&D and improvements of the prototype,"
Aeromobil said in a statement released yesterday. "Testing of the current
prototype 3.0 and further product development will continue after the
replacement of the damaged parts."
It's unclear if this will impact the
company's planned public release of the vehicle within the next two years. But
honestly, we weren't holding our breath, even before this weekend's crash. |
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