PRINEVILLE, Ore. — The Switchblade flying sports car hit 88 mph in recent runway test runs, which is calculated to be the takeoff speed of the vehicle.
Coincidentally, that is the same speed the DeLorean had to reach before it could travel through time in the epic Robert Zemeckis movie Back to the Future.
Officials with Samson Sky, the company developing the $150,000 flying sports car, report they recently gained “lucky” Reservation Position 1,313.
Samson Reservations Manager Martha Hall Bousfield reports that those who have put in reservations for the Switchblade hail from 38 countries, including all 50 states in the United States.
The Switchblade flying sports car is classified as a motorcycle by the U.S. Department of Transportation, but the Samson Sky team like to call it a flying sports car because of its high performance.
The engine is a turbo-charged, 200-hp liquid-cooled V4 that is capable of 0-60 in 6.5 seconds and a top speed of 125 mph. In the air it is designed to cruise at 160 mph, with a top speed of up to 190 mph and a range of 500 miles.
This thing has a LONG way to go. It has to be fully certified under Part 21 and also pass DOT regs for smog and road worthiness. Two benchmarks even big corps have a tough time reaching given the expense and time it takes. Then it needs flight hours, thousands of them before it can be sold to the public. Then it needs customers who have at least a Private certificate to fly. Then it needs to be driven carefully on the roads so as not to become non-airworthy. The $150k price tag is pure bait and switch. By the time this thing is truly ready, if ever…it will be more in the $400k range. A new Cessna 182 just makes 140kts cruise and they are over $500k new.
Hi,
We are actually an Experimental Category aircraft, which is the most popular category in general aviation (non-commercial). More Experimental aircraft are registered each year than all certified aircraft combined due to the ability of having an up-to-date aircraft and not 20 year old technology. We are not slowed down by the certification process, although we design to the FAA standards and test the same way. We have spent four years developing a faster and less expensive method of carbon fiber parts production, which enables us to keep up with the huge demand we are gaining, and keep the price close to our target price so we don’t end up doing a bait and switch. I have seen that done, and it isn’t very nice.
Hopefully these aircraft/auto will be advertised as flying machines and not sports vehicles. Potential customers will have to educate themselves about them. Bad marketing and videos authored by the manufacturer can cause and undue liability and risk for the insurance company.
These “vehicles” carry the wrong labels. Instead of being called “flying cars” they should be correctly labeled “road-ready aircraft.”
A non-pilot is not going to be able to go to the car dealer and buy a vehicle that flies. The public is being duped on this. Once this vehicle breaks ground, it will be subject to all of the same FAA regulations that currently regulate all pilots. Nobody will be able to operate one of these “flying cars” without first obtaining a pilots license.
Hello there,
I would agree that most flying cars could bear the name, roadable aircraft, and it would fit. Ours is high performance in both modes, so we like to call ours a flying sports car. We might be the safest aircraft out there, as you land much faster than typical aircraft, using the three automotive disk brakes to come to a stop in a heartbeat, and are not landing at the lowest possible speed the aircraft can fly, like a typical aircraft. We have a full vehicle parachute, and yes, you will need a private pilot certificate to fly one. This is a good thing, as you wouldn’t want people who don’t know how to fly get in and take off. They would get themselves and others in trouble as a result. Besides, it is a blast to learn to fly, and your skill level in both flying and driving comes up as a result. How about that? We could have better drivers who are also pilots, and the accident rate could come down!