The market for flying cars must be heating up because companies are definitely pushing them towards reality in the hopes people will buy them. We saw the most convincing version of the Aeromobil recently, and now, there's the SkyRunner, the creation of a Louisiana company with the help of Ecoboost power.
It's a good thing that Ford makes a tiny engine in the form of the 1.0-liter Ecoboost three-pot out of the Fiesta, which incidentally is pretty fuel efficient. The fact the SkyRunner weighs less than 1,000 lbs, and less than half of what a Fiesta weighs, means that the company is claiming a 0-60 sprint in just 4.3 seconds.
The SkyRunner is very small. It's a single-passenger, um, thing, that drives on roads but can also take off thanks to what's essentially a big paraglider that inflates and lifts you up from the ground and then absorbs the bumps and turbulence of being in the air in such a small machine.
It's pretty much the carbon fiber structure holding you into the SkyRunner. Despite there being only one seat, lots of other people will hear you screaming. The maximum road speed is 115 mph, and 55 mph when you're flying it at up to 15,000 feet in the air. So it's kind of like an Ariel Atom that takes off in two directions.
Oh, and if something goes wrong mid-flight? Don't worry, the SkyRunner has a little paraglider packed into it.
Much like the Atom, the SkyRunner isn't cheap. You'll need a $1,500 deposit now and a $119,000 when the company plans deliveries to begin early-to-mid 2014. This seems a lot closer to reality, though, than some of the other flying vehicles we've and a great way to hover over traffic if you're just trying to get to Target on a Saturday. I don't know where you're going to put your paper towels on the way back, but that's your problem.
Photo: SkyRunner