Japan’s "flying car" travels 5-10min off ground with a person aboard

PanARMENIAN.Net - Japan’s SkyDrive Inc., a “flying car” project in Japan, has carried out a successful though modest test flight with one person aboard, The Associated Press reports.

In a video shown to reporters on Friday, August 28, a contraption that looked like a slick motorcycle with propellers lifted several feet (1-2 meters) off the ground, and hovered in a netted area for four minutes.

Tomohiro Fukuzawa, who heads the SkyDrive effort, said he hopes “the flying car” can be made into a real-life product by 2023, but he acknowledged that making it safe was critical.

“Of the world’s more than 100 flying car projects, only a handful has succeeded with a person on board,” he said.

The machine so far can fly for just five to 10 minutes but if that can become 30 minutes, it will have more potential, including exports to places like China, Fukuzawa said.