Is It a Bird? Is It a Plane? No, It's Your New Daily Commuter
Image Credit: AIR.
Let's have a little gander about the glorious future of personal transportation. I probably say this way too often, but for years, we've been promised flying cars - and it's true. They've been the star of every sci-fi movie, the dream of every traffic-jammed soul, and the perpetual "five years away" promise from inventors in sheds. I was beginning to think I'd have better luck strapping a rocket to my lawnmower.
But the last six months feel unusually optimistic; it's almost as if someone somewhere opened floodgates of personal flying contraptions and then lost the key. Almost every week this year, I wrote about some kind of a "flying car." Sure, hardly any of them resemble an actual car - there are no wheels, there are no steering wheels, and they don't go on the road at all. Suddenly, we have an entirely new category of personal flying vehicles with companies trying to sell them to us, popping up like mushrooms after rain.
Image Credit: AIR.
This young company from Israel, named AIR, thinks it really has cracked the code, and they've even roped in some German engineering wizards to make sure the wings don't fall off. The German firm in question is EDAG. If you're a connoisseur of the weird and wonderful from the world's auto shows, that name might ring a bell.
These are the same folks who once gave us a six-wheeled robotic pod-car that looked like it was designed to hunt down humanity and, my personal favorite, a sports coupe with a pop-up camper tent. Oh yes - a bright red sports car with a sleeping pod for one, perfectly sculpted into its roofline. It was called the "GenX," and it was gloriously, magnificently pointless. The perfect vehicle for sleeping off a questionable life choice before the drive of shame home.
Image Credit: AIR.
EDAG has a history of creating concepts that make you scratch your head and grin like an idiot. They truly are the mad scientists of the automotive world. So, when I heard they were partnering with an electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) startup, my curiosity peaked. Teaming up the creators of a coupe-camper with a company building a personal flying machine? This could either be a stroke of genius or the most entertaining disaster we've seen in years.
The AIR (the company) has been busy flight-testing its creation, the AIR One, for a while now, so I'm told. The photos you see here aren't just some fancy CGI renders; they are real. These things have actually left the ground. And now, with EDAG's help on the aluminum structure, they're pushing to get these things into the hands (and garages) of actual people. The idea that EDAG, the masters of the wonderfully bizarre, are now responsible for the very bones of our flying future is just a chef's kiss.
Image Credit: AIR.
What exactly is the AIR One? It's a sleek, two-seater pod with eight rotors and wings that fold. Did you know that the biggest problem with owning a personal aircraft is figuring out where to park the darn thing at the supermarket? I didn't. Anyhow, the AIR One fixes that problem since it is designed for short hops, the kind of journey where you spend more time parking than actually moving. AIR is promising a range of about 110 miles or an hour of flight time. Not exactly a cross-country tourer, but more than enough to leapfrog the gridlock on your way to the office.
The performance figures are nothing to sneeze at, either. A top speed of 155 mph is brisk, to say the least. And the acceleration? Well, they haven't given me a 0-to-60 time because, you know, this thing goes up. But I imagine the sensation is rather immediate. All this is powered by a battery pack with quadruple redundancy. Even the rotors have a backup for their backup; it can apparently fly with just four of its eight rotors. That's the kind of over-engineering I like to see when I'm several hundred feet in the air.
Image Credit: AIR.
Practicalities? The AIR One measures 19.2 feet long with a 23-foot wingspan, which is admittedly larger than your average family sedan. But thanks to the clever folding wings, it becomes a bit more manageable. It has a payload capacity of 550 pounds, which is enough for two reasonably sized adults and their emotional baggage. There's even a cargo version, for when you need to airlift a pallet of… I don't know, artisanal cheese? Or perhaps emergency supplies. It's surprisingly versatile.
Charging, the eternal bugbear of all things electric, is surprisingly sensible. AIR estimates a full charge from zero to 100% in just an hour, and a more practical 20-to-80% top-up in 30 minutes. That's just enough time to do all the grocery shopping you need, grab a coffee, and explain to a crowd of onlookers that, yes, this is, in fact, your new daily commuter.
Image Credit: AIR.
The price for joining this exclusive flying club? A cool $150,000. I know, not really a pocket change, but before you spit out your coffee, think about it. That's less than some high-end sports cars that are utterly useless in a traffic jam. It turns out there are quite a few people interested because the first production run is already sold out! People are lining up, checkbooks in hand, to buy a vehicle that hasn't even been delivered yet. The optimism is infectious, I admit, but I'll reserve my full-throated cheer until I see these things buzzing around like happy, electric bees.
We are literally on the cusp of something genuinely new. A personal electric aircraft, built with the help of the same brilliant minds that thought a coupe-coffin was a good idea. It's a fantastic, almost unbelievable story. Will we all be zipping around in our AIR Ones by 2026? My inner skeptic says, "Let's wait and see." But my inner ten-year-old is bouncing off the walls with excitement. The future is coming, and it looks like it might actually be as cool as we were promised. Just as long as they don't try to add a pop-up tent.
