PAL V Now Sells the First Commercial Flying Car

Until recently, most of what I've written about on this website has been what interests me the most in aviation. If you go back and look you'll see a lot recommendations on aviation videos that I found informative, opinions on new aviation technology, and even a few lists where I rank a company's top aircraft in tribute to their aviation contributions. This site was all about writing on whatever caught my attention in the aviation-sphere of things as I progressed through my own pilot-based adventure within aviation-land.

Every once in a while, despite the limited content on this website, I find myself pleased to see something I found interesting in the past re-surface in the news. For instance in 2011, I wrote about China getting their first aircraft carrier and last month it was re-confirmed that they were well on their way to building their second.

Well as chance seems to have it, it also happened again this month. After writing a fanboy-esque article on the PAL V One in 2013 and noting it's unique ability to seamlessly transition between sky bound aircraft and road ready vehicle, I saw a Slash Gear article announcing that the PAL V is now the first ever commercially sold flying car. Congratulations to the engineering team!

Unfortunately, outside of the announcement that the PAL V will be commercially available in 2018, the Slash Gear article was quick to point out some of their concerns with the vehicle writing, "PAL-V assures that [it] was a designed to comply with aviation and car regulations both in the European Union and the United States. It implies that there doesn’t need to be any change of regulations to accommodate this flying car, unlike ground-based self-driving cars. But those regulations probably never envisioned a single vehicle that can both drive on land as well as fly in the air."

Despite the concerns it seems that the people over at PAL V are a bit more optimistic in the future of the flying car and are already taking steps towards ensuring safety and adherence to aviation regulations by opening up the first ever "flying car school".

According to an article in PC World:

Roosevelt, Utah, now has the distinction of being the first city in North America to have a flying car school. The location was chosen both for its mountainous terrain and concentration of reputable instructors, according to Mark Jennings-Bates, vice president of sales for PAL-V.

PAL-V is still in the process of receiving approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the European Aviation Safety Agency for its flying car, though the company says that EASA has certified all the vehicle's individual components and it's now just a matter of putting them all together. If all goes well, PAL-V plans on rolling out its flying cars to customers in 2018.

Regardless of where you believe the PAL V might fit in with respects to existing federal regulations, seeing innovation in aviation carry through into marketplace is always exciting. Consider all the costs associated with doing anything new in this industry and the PAL V is a rarity. Of course, time will tell how successful this variant of the flying car will actually become but for now I'd say they've earned themselves a little celebration.

"Aviation is for the common man. My goal is to enable everyone to fly. It shouldn't be only for the rich." - Tony Fernandes