AeroMobil

The flying car—or lack thereof—has become 21st-century shorthand for complaints about the future and questionable technological progress. Futurists in the 1950s and 1960s promised us cities in space, shiny silver jumpsuits, and an end to gridlock as Joe Smith ditched the clogged freeways and took his commute to the air. Obviously, that didn’t happen, but AeroMobil still believes in that dream and thinks that technologies like lightweight materials and better engines have now gotten to the point where it can make the idea work. On Thursday it unveiled the latest version of its flying car at the Top Marques show in Monaco.

It’s the fourth evolution of a flying car from the AeroMobil team, but the first designed to satisfy European and federal road vehicle and aircraft regulations. “Technology didn’t exist when we tried [our] first attempts,” said Douglas MacAndrew, AeroMobil’s Chief Technical Officer. “Now we can deliver very lightweight structures and very high power engines. Because of those and the market, drivers wanting to have access to freedom of movement, that has driven AeroMobil to come into existence. We’ve spent two years [since the debut of Flying Car version 3.0] trying to deliver it as a consistent and legal product.”