It may be poised for production, but it certainly isn’t ready to be safely sold to the public. Slovakia’s Aeromobil flying car reportedly crashed during a test flight last Friday – it was being driven/piloted by company co-founder Stefan Klein, although he was not seriously injured.
Apparently, he did deploy the parachute the vehicle has built-in, but this is only said to lessen the impact with the ground – it’s nowhere near making it gentle, though.
You can see that just by looking through the crash site photos; it clearly hit the grass with some force, and it really looks like it could have been much worse for the driver/pilot.
According to a statement published on the company’s website, Klein “encountered an unexpected situation and activated the advanced ballistic parachute system in an altitude of approximately 300 meters (900 feet).”
They add that “the system has proved itself fully functional and landed the entire vehicle without any injury to the pilot.”
The nature of the problem encountered is not mentioned, but since this is a prototype that’s subject to change and improve before the announced 2017 launch date.
Via Paleofuture, nitra.sme.sk
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