A Dutch company called PAL-V has just revealed the world’s first production flying car, PAL-V Liberty, at the 2018 Geneva motor show. The PAL-V Liberty comes a year before the first examples arrive on roads, or should I say skies.
PAL-V claims the Liberty is completely compliant with current/existing regulations and says it represents a “pivotal time in aviation and mobility history”.
The three-wheeled PAL-V Liberty flying car is equipped with a 74 kW (99bhp) driving engine and a 147 kW (197 bhp) Rotax powered flying engine. It can be ordered for around £425,000, that’s roughly around R7 million.
There’s also the Liberty Pioneer Edition, which is priced from €499,000/ $599,000/ £440,000/ R7,3 million. The price tag comes with some flight instruction classes, energy heating and personalisation choices.
For now, it has been said that it’s likely only 90 will be offered with most of them heading to Europe. Thereafter the manufacturer will start on the PAL-V Liberty Sport Fashion. This model will be priced from €299,000/ $399,000/ £254,000/ R4,4 million. (Prices are from the manufacturer’s website)
PAL-V Liberty build
The flying car has a three-wheel format and fold-away rotor blades on the roof. In essence, it can be seen as a gyrocopter airplane with two engines. As aforementioned, the twin propulsion drivetrain contains one engine for driving and one for flying. It has an unpowered massive rotor that will make it rise, and an engine-powered blade at the rear of the car offers thrust. It has lowered suspension and a tilting two-seat cockpit.
For the PAL-V Liberty to go from drive to fly mode or vice versa will take around 5-10 minutes. The driving force will pull out the tail phase and the rotor mast will unfold automatically. The two rotor blades will spread and take out the prop and this will enable it to fly.
You will need a flying license and you can not take off or land in any place. PAL-V says the Liberty requires an area space of around 90-200 × 200 metres to take off without hindrances. Small airstrips, aerodromes, glider and ultralight airfields are most suitable.
The manufacturer says the noise that the PAL-V Liberty produces when in flight will be ‘much less than a helicopter’. It also does a 0-100 km/h in 9 seconds flat. In the air, the Liberty can climb to a maximum altitude of 3500m, and its flying engine can get it to a top speed of 180 km/h. The company claims a range of 500 kilometres.
PAL-V R&D
The Dutch manufacturer has collaborated with Italian design agencies for the flying car. It has been conducting test programmes for at least 10 years now.
PAL-V’s CEO, Robert Dingemanse, said: “After years of hard work, beating the technical and qualification challenges, our team succeeded in creating an innovative flying car that complies with existing safety standards determined by regulatory bodies around the world.”
