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Aska Brings Back the Dream of a Flying Car

During Monterey Car Week, the Northern Californian business Aska displayed a working prototype of a flying car that it plans to commercialize in two to three years.
The Aska A5 flying vehicle is an advancement over the concept of a “flying car” in that it can take off both vertically and horizontally.
One hundred potential purchasers have already made reservations for these planes, which are expected to be used as rentals or taxis and cost roughly $800,000.

Long before self-driving cars became the just-around-the-corner technology to pursue, flying automobiles were hyped as a future technology. Some, like Terrafugia, made significant progress but eventually failed to reach the market. There is a new player who claims to achieve the dream in two to three years.

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For the past six years, Aska, a Northern California-based business, has been developing a solution with a team of roughly 50 people. During Monterey Car Week events, we were given a brief (land-bound) ride in the company’s first prototype. Aska has added another innovation to the flying-car concept, though it is still extremely early and unrefined, in that it can take off vertically in addition to horizontally like a conventional airplane. This implies that it might enter and exit significantly smaller spaces. In fact, the company’s CEO and co-founder Guy Kaplinsky has lofty plans for repurposing gas stations—many of which he anticipates going out of business as more people switch to driving electric vehicles—into launchpads for his invention.

The Aska A5 has four seats and six propellers, four of which can change their position from vertical to horizontal to make it easier to transition from takeoff to flight. The Aska can also launch conventionally, in which case an electric motor is attached at each of the back wheels to increase acceleration. The 5000–6000-pound vehicle is powered by a roughly 100.0-kWh battery pack, with a gas-powered range extender to provide more electricity as necessary. Kaplinsky promises the manufacturing version will be lighter. With a reported flying range of 250 mph and a cruising speed of 150 mph.

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The front and rear wings must be secured to prevent them from bouncing around with road impacts when the aircraft is in driving position, which takes roughly a minute. Although it is now manual, Kaplinsky predicts that soon there will be an automatic locking system. However, the Aska won’t meet all of the legal standards to be a completely street legal “flying car,” therefore a more realistic name would be a “driving plane” as opposed to a “flying car.” It will be registered as a local electric car instead.

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According to Kaplinsky, the driving distance would normally be less than 10 miles in order to reach the proper takeoff spot, and the A5 would be used primarily as a rental or taxi. 100 bookings have already been made, he claims, for his craft, which will only cost $800,000. The business recently started unmanned hovering as they pursue FAA approval.

We’re hoping that the flying automobile actually succeeds this time.

 

Agblor Courage

I am Courage Agblor, a writer, web designer, and publisher with a passion for education, culture, and truth. As a graduate with a bachelor's degree in education, I am dedicated to sharing knowledge that informs, inspires, and preserves the rich heritage of the Ewe people.

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