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Dubai Residents Will Soon Travel Door To Door By Flying Car
Aviation firm Aviterra has signed a deal with Dutch company PAL-V to purchase over 100 Liberty flying cars.
A Dubai-headquartered aviation company has signed an agreement with Dutch firm PAL-V to bring their groundbreaking flying cars to the Middle East.
Aviterra, a manufacturer of aviation and aerospace components, will purchase over 100 Liberty flying cars and directly invest in the European aviation company, they revealed in a recent joint statement.
At $799,000, the two-seat Liberty is a costly vehicle predominantly aimed at high-end, corporate, and government clients and individuals with very deep pockets. Described by PAL-V as a “personal aircraft for daily medium and long-distance commutes,” the Liberty combines a gyroplane and three-wheeled car with collapsable propellers and tail fins stored on the roof.
In car mode, the vehicle can reach 100 kph in under nine seconds and has a top speed of 160 kph. Changing into aircraft modes takes around five minutes, with the helicopter-like blades rising from the roof and the tail fins extending up and out from the rear. Finally, the car’s rear jacks up, and two hatches open to deploy the rear-facing propeller.
As an aircraft, the Liberty has a range of between 400 and 500 km and a maximum speed of 180 kph. It can reach an altitude of 11,000 feet and requires a runway (or straight road) of at least 200 meters for both takeoff and landing.
The current batch of Liberty flying cars run on regular gasoline but will eventually be configured as EVs “once batteries get lighter”, according to Robert Dingemanse, CEO and founder of PAL-V.
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Meanwhile, as both Abu Dhabi and Dubai continue to make strong commitments to air mobility, other companies are also keen to deploy flying cars in the Middle East. Slovakian firm KleinVision, for example, is developing a flying vehicle called the Aircar, powered by a BMW engine.
Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority recently signed agreements to use air taxis in the city in the next two years, while Abu Dhabi’s Investment Office has announced plans to introduce an all-electric air taxi fleet by 2026.