What to Know
- The flying car runs on regular gas and can operate on the road just like a car.
- The vehicle will remain out on N.E. 2nd Avenue and 9th Street during Art Basel.
- The car is already being tested in Europe.
The future arrived in downtown Miami Monday in the form of a flying car that one day could bring you home and help you beat the South Florida traffic.
The cartoon characters in "The Jetsons" had a flying car, so could this be the way to go for our traffic headaches?
NBC 6 was able to get an exclusive look at the flying car and where one day it might land.
That could end up being the top of the new Paramount Miami World Center’s residence tower building where people are starting to move in. It’s 60 stories above all the traffic, and the plan is for one swimming pool to turn into a landing pad for the flying car.
On Monday, as the traffic buzzed by in downtown Miami, the mock up flying car, airplane, and helicopter was unloaded and put on display in front of the Paramount building a few blocks from the American Airlines Arena. The vehicle will remain out on N.E. 2nd Avenue and 9th Street during Art Basel.
"Ever since 'The Jetsons' America has been kind of enamored with the idea of a flying car," said Daniel Kodsi, the CEO of Paramount Miami World Center.
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Yes, the Jetsons flew right into their own parking garage — kind of what Kodsi had in mind when he came up with the idea for the 60-story luxury tower near.
The flying car is already being tested in Europe. It runs on regular gas and can operate on the road just like a car, and in the air it can travel about 100 miles an hour.
“So in essence a flying drone could land on the landing pad and you could enter into right into what today is the observatory which in the future be a sky port and this in essence would be the lobby of the building,” Kodsi said.
Mark Jennings-Bates is the Vice President of PAL-V, the company handling the flying end of the project.
"An electrical vertical take off and landing aircraft. So that will be able to take off vertically from the deck, transition to horizontal flight, take you to where you need to go and land vertically. We anticipate those would 15 to 20 minutes durations—just short flights," he said.
For now, there’s a real pilot though doing the flying. Dan says this concept goes way beyond the few who can afford their own flying car or a place to park it. This can be the beginning of a way for commuters to get around in larger versions.
“We have traffic jams. We have terrible congestion. The population continues to grow and the roads can’t handle the volume that continues to come on to them right now. So we are going to have to find relief,” said.
Jennings-Bates sees the project as a stepping stone for bigger things.
"In any big community people are asking how can we solve transportation problems? And this is one piece of that puzzle where in Miami in particular you can fly over the traffic instead of sitting in that traffic and getting more agitated because you aren't’ getting where you want to go,” he said.
This is an idea that transportation experts here in South Florida are exploring. Since most of the region doesn’t have mass rail transit to many areas. The FAA would have to approve any flights.
