Flying cars, once the stuff of sci-fi comics, are now a reality. Geely-owned Terrafugia received its FAA airworthiness certificate at the beginning of this year for its distinctly plane-looking Transition, and in June the more recognizably car-shaped AirCar, which looks like a Porsche 962 performing a high-wire act, completed a 35-minute flight between two international airports in Slovakia.

Moreover, just last week Chinese company XPeng revealed a supercar that appeared to outdo both with its vertical take-off capability, a crazy $157,000 price, and the surely fanciful promise that it would be on sale in 2024.

These are drivable cars (of sorts), not unmanned air-taxi drones which are being developed in parallel, and in which companies like Hyundai and Mercedes are investing heavily on the advice of experts who predict that the urban air mobility industry will grow from $2.6 billion in 2020 to $9.1 billion by 2030.

The air-taxi thing is imminent, with Hyundai claiming VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) passenger drones will be buzzing around by the end of the decade. But there are still a huge number of regulatory hoops to jump, or fly, through before the general public is allowed to pile into a car and take off into the sky.

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Realistically, it’s going to take years, or more likely decades, and maybe the whole flying process would have to be automated and tied in to air traffic control computers to have a hope of avoiding the kind of airborne chaos that would make the Battle of Britain look tame. And that’s aside from the sheer engineering challenges involved, which are discussed in a video from YouTube tech head Marques Brownlee (MKHB) below.

But taking a seriously long-term perspective, does anyone really think it won’t happen at some point? And when it does, when a regular rich Joe can walk into a dealership and buy a car that’s both fast on the ground and can whisk him to Bermuda for the weekend on a whim, or just skip a line of backed-up traffic, will anyone still want a conventional supercar?

We love driving, and regular non-flying cars will probably still be around forever to satisfy the urge to drive because there are plenty of journeys that don’t require air travel. And without the huge additional weight of the airplane/drone hardware, non-flying cars will be much more fun to drive, or so the car’s voice assistant will be able to tell us, because we’ll probably not be allowed to take the wheel – presuming there still is one by then.

Are Flying Cars The New Supercars?

But think about why many people buy supercars. Yes, they buy them for the performance, though most realistically only ever use a fraction of it. But they also buy them for the pose, to own something that looks incredible in their garage, that turns heads in the street, and is backed up by the best engineering and materials money can buy. That sounds like a flying car to me.

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Today’s supercar owners might be driving something capable of 220 mph, but do most supercars owners top more than 120 mph for sustained periods? I doubt it, at least not in the UK or the U.S. Driving a car that can fly, but rarely does, wouldn’t be that different. What matters is that the owners would know, and everyone seeing them would know too, they they could fly if they wanted.

So will flying cars become the new supercars? And will today’s supercar brands be forced to integrate flying technology, much like they’re being forced into adopting EV technology today, to avoid becoming an oldies act like Morgan? Are you even excited about the idea of a supercar that has a double life as an airplane or are you quite happy to keep your Pilot Sport Cup 2s on the ground? Leave us a comment and let us know while I make my way back from 2071.