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The flying, time-traveling Delorean powered by Mr. Fusion in Back to the Future may have been science fiction, but a flying Delorean is getting closer to reality. Delorean Aerospace, a company run by Paul Delorean, nephew of the legendary John Delorean, is making real strides in a futuristic field. The company is building vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) personal transports, which is a fancy way of saying flying car.
Delorean Aerospace has been around since 2012 and it has built two prototypes so far of the DR-7 aircraft. The first was just 30 inches long—basically a drone to prove the physics of the design works. The second one is one-third scale. The body has a set of wings in front and another in back with small winglets underneath while two tandem seats in between hold the passengers. There are big fans that propel the vehicle in front and back that swivel to switch from takeoff-landing mode to forward flight mode.
The Delorean Aerospace DR-7 is all-electric and has an optimistic range. “We are moving forward on a full-size, piloted prototype which will carry two passengers and is designed to operate, fully electric, for a range of 120 miles,” Paul Delorean told Wired. Delorean wasn’t specific about the powertrain, but we predict that the electric motor will produce 1.21 jigawatts propelling the DR-7 to a top speed of 88 mph.
The real kicker is that these flying cars will be autonomous. You won’t need a pilot’s license, or any license at all for that matter, to use one of these things. While the air traffic control still needs to be figured out, the fact that anybody would be able to fly in a DR-7 is huge.
There’s no estimation of when these flying marvels will be available, nor is there a cost estimate. Delorean told Wired there’s still a lot of testing to do. Even when a full-size prototype is complete, he’s planning on doing lots of radio-controlled testing before putting anyone in a DR-7.
You might not be ready for the Delorean DR-7 yet… But your kids are gonna love it.
