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Israel Just Took One Step Closer to Making Compact Wingless 'Flying Cars' Real
interestingengineering.com

Israel Just Took One Step Closer to Making Compact Wingless 'Flying Cars' Real

While other VTOL companies toy with battery-based flight, an Israeli company has high hopes on Hydrogen fuel to power its flying taxis.

Science & Tech

Almost every time we talk about Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) concepts, we are looking at a scaled-down version of an aircraft that can carry four-five people and some cargo. And an Israel- based company, Urban Aeronautics is determined to create the first flying car and they are doing a pretty good job at it.

Last year, we covered Urban Aeronautics' models, City Hawk, and Falcon XP. The striking feature of their design still resembles the traditional shape of a car, something we have barely seen in other VTOL concepts. Apart from the promise of carrying more people per trip, the greatest advantage of these aircraft would be the non-requirement of specialized infrastructure to land these vehicles.

As CEO, Nimrod Golan-Yanay, said earlier this year, where their competitors can land one aircraft, Urban Aeronautics can land four. This can not only help the company ferry more people in limited space but it also means higher revenues from that infrastructure. Very few VTOL operators will have the ability to actually land their aircraft on rooftops and city streets, something Urban Aeronautics is keen on doing, within regulations of course.