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The tech behind a flying car, originally developed and successfully test-flown in Europe, has been bought by a Chinese firm (www.bbc.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Powered by a BMW engine and normal fuel, the AirCar flew for 35 minutes between two Slovakian airports in 2021, using runways for take-off and landing.

It took just over two minutes to transform from a car into an aircraft.

Now vehicles made based on its design will be used within a "specific geographical region" of China.

Hebei Jianxin Flying Car Technology Company, headquartered in Cangzhou, has purchased exclusive rights to manufacture and use AirCar aircraft inside an undisclosed area.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Helicopters have been around for much longer than that, as early as 1906 apparently. The first mass produced helicopter was the Sikorsky R-4, introduced in 1943

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Apparently the first passenger helicopter service was in 1950, so I was out by 20 years. It's a bit of a grey area when they switched from "weapon of war" to "flying taxi", but it would be somewhere around the 40s.

I still find it insane that the helicopter was invented only 20 years after the car.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Well DaVinci already toyed with the idea (which didn't work obviously), so the idea is much older. It's still impressive indeed how soon we got working helicopters