You Could Learn to Pilot This Flying Car in Just 5 Minutes

When I first laid eyes on the Aridge flying car at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin this past September, I didn’t fully understand what I was looking at. Taking pride of place on the stand belonging to Chinese robotics company Xpeng, there was a van that bore more than a passing resemblance to a Cybertruck. It didn’t have any wings, and it looked far too dense to fly. Sitting next to it was a kind of oversized drone with a cabin just about large enough to fit two people. The two vehicles seemed like totally separate entities. It never would’ve occurred to me to assume they were two halves of one system – much less that the drone, with its substantial wingspan, could fold up to fit inside the van. I now understand that this modular two-part flying car system is known formally as the Aridge Land Aircraft Carrier. The ground vehicle, also known as the mothership, is a chunky 5.5-meter-long van that can be driven with a standard license and fits in most parking spaces. It’s designed to store, carry and deploy the electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle, or eVTOL, including its six foldable rotors, which can fly as high as a helicopter for 30km (about 19 miles). This remarkable creation is the work of Deli Zhao, founder and president of Aridge, which is backed by robotics and auto company Xpeng. Speaking at Web Summit in Lisbon on Tuesday, Zhao presented himself as a man who was inspired to pursue a career building flying cars by Harry Potter and the Green Goblin, despite his lack of formal education. “Dreams are very important,” Zhao said, as a video of him flying the eVTOL played on a screen in the background. Anyone can learn to fly the vehicle with just five minutes of training, he added. Or if you’re too tired to use the simple joystick, the eVTOL can fly itself autonomously. “Everyone here can be a pilot,” Zhao said. “Everyone can be a captain.” Flying ahead of the pack This sounds like a story from the very kinds of science fiction that sparked the creation of the Land Aircraft Carrier in the first place – and yet, it isn’t. It’s far from the first time I’ve seen a flying car concept at a tech event. They’ve been showing up for almost a decade at this point. But what marks this one apart is that Xpeng says it has already taken 17,000 orders for the vehicle across China, the UAE and other Asian markets. “Our advantage is we’re closer to commercialization,” Zhao said. Xpeng has established the world’s first mass-production factory for flying cars in Guangzhou, with trial production beginning in November last year. Right now, it’s ramping up capacity and improving quality with the aim of eventually being able to build a flying car in 30 minutes. When I saw the eVTOL at IFA, it was so big that I struggled to fit it in one frame. Aridge has worked through many different concepts, including flying motorcycles, to finally find one ready for commercial production (plus it has a six-seater air taxi and integrated flying car in the works for the future too). If you have $300,000 going spare, the Land Aircraft Carrier could soon be yours. The vast majority of preorders are from individuals, according to Xpeng, but the vehicle has also been designed for use in tourism and search and rescue. Zhao said it solves multiple problems with existing eVTOLs simultaneously: storage (it lives in the back of the mothership), recharging (it charges as the mothership is driving), transportation to and from appropriate flight sites, and ease of use. “I hope to make flying accessible to everyone as soon as possible,” Zhao said. Right now, it takes around 20 to 30 hours of training to acquire the sport pilot license you’d need to fly the eVTOL. In China, Zhao said he’s in conversation with the regulator to reduce this, emphasizing his vehicle’s ease of use. A China-first product Zhao said he’s learned a lot from the aviation sector in China, where the Land Aircraft Carrier has gone through extensive safety testing and will likely take to the skies first as a consumer-owned product as soon as next summer. Growing its low-altitude economy, which encompasses drone delivery and eVTOLs, is national policy for the country – in spite of calls for more regulation after a deadly crash in Beijing this summer. Xpeng is also eyeing the European market, although the regulatory hurdles are likely to be substantial. “Europe’s aviation sector is highly developed,” Zhao said, expressing his respect for the region’s strict rules, but adding that the market was important. The company will also start exploring certification in the US next year, he said. Actual progress will depend on the outcomes, he added. In spite of Zhao’s boundless optimism, it’s difficult to buy into the hype around his flying car without witnessing it in action in person. I’ve now seen the Land Aircraft Carrier twice in different locations and videos of it in operation, but I want to observe the eVTOL’s deployment from the mothership and its airborne skills for myself. I still can’t fathom how the eVTOL fits in here. At one point during his Web Summit talk, Zhao climbed into the cockpit of the eVTOL on stage. For a moment it seemed as though he might fly it right then and there inside Lisbon’s cavernous ME Arena. The audience raised their phones in unison, only to drop them again in disappointment when they realized Zhao wasn’t actually going to take off. No matter how idiot-proof it might be to fly, it turns out European health and safety rules still apply. Disclosure: Katie Collins traveled to Lisbon as a guest of Web Summit to serve as a panel moderator. Her reporting from the event was independent of that role.