Getting stuck in a traffic jam and then simply flying away is the dream of many troubled commuters and road travelers. But the future doesn’t look quite so rosy. But Aska shows such a driving aircraft in a compact size.
Aska showed a working prototype of a car-helicopter hybrid at CES 2023 and also ran the first functions live. But when will the future of mobility take off and is such a hexacopter really the solution for the mobility revolution?
SIX ROTORS, FOUR SEATS AND TWO DRIVES
The basic data of the Aska hybrid are quickly listed: 150 miles per hour, i.e. at up to 241 km/h, it should go up to 250 miles (approx. 402 km) far in the air. Six rotors are driven by one battery. If necessary, an internal combustion engine is also on board. According to Aska, purely electrically, 50 to 60 miles (approx. 97 km) are possible. Anything beyond that has to be regulated with the combustion engine.
The motors in the four wheels catapult the vehicle from 0 to 100 km/h in 2 seconds. This means that a runway of only 80 meters is sufficient for the flying car. This is a runway consumption on a level with fighter jets, confirms Aska CEO Guy Kaplinsky. If necessary, you can also take off vertically with the Aska A5 like with a helicopter. However, this consumes a lot of energy and so it makes more sense to only do this in an emergency. Kaplinsky explains this at the presentation at the Las Vegas exhibition center. Up to four people should be traveling either on the road or in the air. But the key here is something else.
With its sweeping wings at the rear and over the cab, the Aska could never be on a conventional road. Even on the wide highways in Las Vegas, the dimensions would be too big. However, Aska has developed a solution for this. Because the wings with the rotors can be folded in and are then all located above the basic structure of the vehicle. The hybrid should reach the size of an SUV when it is on the road.
LARGE DIMENSIONS ARE STILL MINIMIZED
When presenting at CES 2023, however, there are doubts about the size specification. Because even when all the wings and rotors are folded in, the Aska is still immensely large and unthinkably mobile in German cities. It doesn’t help much that the prototype is around 30 percent larger than the final car is supposed to be.
But it’s not designed for that either. It should get the inclined city dweller through the air out of the urban area or into it rather quickly and without traffic jams. And that too via app order. So you should be able to book it like a taxi and let yourself be flown in or out stress-free. Such an ordering system is one of the essential parts of Aska in the course of the development of the whiz. But when should it be?
THE TIMELINE TO ASKA’S FLYING CAR
The problems of getting the flying car into traffic are not just of a technical nature. Above all, approvals and flight permits cause problems here. The hardware is now ready to take off. The first public flight tests will take place in the coming months. Then the vertical start is tested and it goes higher and higher. So far, five years of development have passed. If all goes well, the Vogel will be on the market in 2026. But you can pre-order it now.
