Japan’s Flying Car of Tomorrow

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Jordan Phelps

Just recently Japan has came out with a new flying car! what a big leap for Japan. August 25th at the Toyota Test Field the amphibian car named SD-03 took it’s first flight for about four minutes. What an amazing sight to see! It’s going to be fun see where it goes from here.

This extraordinary machine was flying (at 25-31 mph) at the altitude of six feet in the air of the test flight. Now Toyota just recently received $37 million in funding for the future in the company SKYDRIVE.

“Of the world’s more than 100 flying car projects, only a handful have succeeded with a person on board,” – CEO Tomohiro Fukuzawa

He also told the Associated Press on Friday. “I hope many people will want to ride it and feel safe.”

While the SD-03 can currently only lift up about 10 feet and hover for five to 10 minutes, the hope is to increase that to 30 minutes by the time it’s released in 2023. The company plans to obtain permits to fly outside of the Toyota Test Field by the end of the year.

SkyDrive started in 2018 as an offshoot of the volunteer group Cartivator that was established in 2012 and began developing its first flying car in 2014.

Among its 100 corporate sponsors are Panasonic and Sony. Flying cars have long been a goal with many companies, including Uber working with NASA to develop a model. Morgan Stanley estimates they could become a $1.5 trillion market by 204 the developers say.

Experts say that they compare the excitement about flying cars to the days when the aviation industry got started with the Wright Brothers and the auto industry with the Ford Model T.

Lilium of Germany, Joby Aviation in California and Wisk, a joint business involving Boeing and the company Kitty Hawk, are also working on eVTOL projects. These projects will be very cool to see in the future!