Aug. 3—Alef Aeronautics' attempt to build and sell the world's first flying car began in 2015 as many things do in Silicon Valley — inside a boutique coffee shop in Palo Alto.
At a Coupa Cafe, Alef CEO Jim Dukhovny sat at a table with his three future co-founders — Constantine Kisly, Oleg Petrov and Pavel Markin — as he drew his concept of a flying car on a napkin.
How long, Dukhovny asked them, would it take to successfully build such a technology?
"They told me it was going to take about six months," Dukhovny told The Chronicle. "Here we are eight years later. We're still building."
It's taken longer than envisioned, but the possibility of flying cars hovering above congested roadways like the fantastical vehicles seen in "The Jetsons" or "Blade Runner" has since moved closer to reality. In late June, Alef received permission from federal regulators to test its electric car's flight capabilities in limited locations.
The all-black, futuristic-looking car unveiled in San Mateo last October features a central cabin that can fit two people and is surrounded by a mesh automobile frame. Instead of a conventional engine, the flying car is designed with four motors — one inside each wheel — and comes equipped with eight propellers.
The company says the electric car will have a flying range of 110 miles and a road range of 200 miles. Alef plans to sell its Model A car for $300,000 each, starting in 2025.
Dukhovny said the company has successfully "transitioned" prototypes from the grounded horizontal position that normal cars drive in to its "biplane mode" that allows for full flight capabilities. The Model A car will also feature a third "rotorcraft mode" in which the car can briefly take flight from a horizontal position.
The Model A car takes flight in a vertical position, with the left and right side of its mesh body acting as wings, Dukhovny said. The vehicle's cabin stays parallel to the ground during the transition and throughout biplane mode, he said.
The San Mateo-based company claimed in a press release its flying car was the first to be granted what's known as a special airworthiness certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration. The certificate designates Alef's flying car as a "low-speed vehicle," meaning it can't drive on paved roads faster than 25 miles per hour.
Alef and its nascent technology are backed by venture capitalist Tim Draper and Elon Musk's SpaceX. The startup has privately demonstrated its electric car's flight transition to investors, and plans to use the FAA's certificate for testing ahead of a public demonstration by the end of the year, Dukhovny said.
Alef first achieved the flight transition in 2018 with a "small-scale prototype" before flying a full-sized prototype in 2019, Dukhovny said.
A year since the Model A car's public unveiling, and after seven years "working in stealth mode," Dukhovny said the public will soon get to see what left him and Alef's co-founders in awe back in 2018.
"It was amazing," Dukhovny said of the inaugural flight transition. "We expected it to fall, and it didn't fall."
It's unclear how much the flying car will weigh, exactly, though it will be light enough to be equipped with a ballistic parachute for emergency landings.
Even as Alef says it's close to making one of the most fanciful conceptions of science fiction a commercial reality, many more questions remain.
It's unclear, for example, whether the flying cars will require certification beyond a regular driver's license to operate, as well as how federal, state and local governments will regulate the technology.
Also unknown is the scale in which flying cars will be used, how they will impact cities, where they'll be allowed to deploy and what the rules of commuting by sky will be. Dukhovny envisions it will take years, if not longer, for the technology to become mainstream.
"It's not like you're going to see even one or two (flying cars) tomorrow in San Francisco," Dukhovny said. "It's going to be very incremental. People will adapt."
Some people have already placed $1,500 deposits for their own flying cars. Last week, Alef announced that it has, so far, sold more than $750 million worth of flying cars through pre-orders.
Reach Ricardo Cano: [email protected]; Twitter: @ByRicardoCano
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