Elon Musk has shown a Tesla Roadster prototype that can jump, flip in the air and land with help from SpaceX-derived air thrusters. It is a striking display of engineering. It is also important to separate the demonstration from the idea of everyday flying transport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The prototype drove up a curved ramp, held itself upside down through a suction system, then used high-pressure air thrusters to roll in the air and land. Tesla says the top Roadster variant, called Rocket, will use 10 thrusters. It has not shown sustained point-to-point flight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A practical flying car needs safe take-off and landing, predictable flight controls, air-traffic rules, emergency systems and approval from regulators. Tesla’s Roadster demo was remote-controlled at a SpaceX test facility. The FAA told CBS News that the vehicle does not meet its definition of an aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Musk says production is planned for 2028. Tesla has described the Rocket version as invitation-only and says flight is not permitted on public roads. The Roadster is best viewed today as an extreme-performance electric sports car with short-airborne capability, rather than a transport solution for daily travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The announcement shows how quickly ideas move when car engineering, software and aerospace hardware meet. The real test is no longer whether a vehicle can leave the ground. It is whether it can do so safely, repeatedly and within clear rules. That is the difference between a spectacular prototype and a useful product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sources:<\/strong> CBS News<\/a>, Car and Driver<\/a>, and The Guardian<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Elon Musk has shown a Tesla Roadster prototype that can jump, flip in the air and land with help from SpaceX-derived air thrusters. It is a striking display of engineering. It is also important to separate the demonstration from the idea of everyday flying transport. What Tesla showed The prototype drove up a curved ramp, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":412,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mykalt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mykalt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mykalt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mykalt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mykalt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mykalt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":416,"href":"https:\/\/mykalt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions\/416"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mykalt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mykalt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mykalt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mykalt.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}