Saar: Calling it the Volante Vision Concept, the company presented a demonstration at the ongoing Farnborough International Airshow.
Flying cars – a concept that sounds so good that many big names, and not just from the auto industry, are betting big on it. Britain’s Aston Martin has officially joined that list with the Volante Vision Concept. The company presented a demonstration at the ongoing Farnborough International Airshow and has tagged it as a “luxury concept aircraft” with vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capabilities. The DB11-maker collaborated with Cranfield University, Cranfield Aerospace Solutions and Rolls-Royce to create it.
In theory, obviously, the Aston Martin Volante Vision Concept is a three-seater, autonomous, hybrid-electric vehicle designed for urban and inter-city air travel. Aston Martin says that the concept will take “full advantage of the latest advances in aerospace, electrification and autonomous technologies, coupled with Aston Martin’s signature design.” The company is also confident that the end product, which we have our doubts on whether it will be built at all, will be good enough for all kinds of customers across the globe. The three-seater concept shown here is more like the sporty variant of the flying car. If it ever reaches the production line, we’ll surely need a sedan-like four-seater and an SUV/MPV-like seven-seater version of that too. Just a thought!
If you are waiting for some numbers to quantify the whole personal air transportation thing, then don’t because even Aston Martin doesn’t have any as of now. Theoretically, the VTOL arrangement of the Aston Martin Volante Vision Concept means that the flying car can make use of the existing infrastructure like helipads and airports. From the pictures, it seems that Aston Martin wants three propellers in the setup – one on each side and one behind the rear seats. The blades on all three propellers have lights, which we think will change colour based on what they are doing during a flight. That could be a nice touch.
Aston Martin’s ally Rolls-Royce, who will be responsible in the design and engineering of the hybrid-electric propulsion system for the Volante Vision Concept, recently revealed its own plans to enter the personal air mobility sector. The jet engine-maker is currently looking for partnerships to put its propulsion system for an electric vertical take-off and landing (EVTOL) vehicle into a prototype. The British marque aims to put the flying car in use by as early as next decade.
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