Flying vehicle concepts and prototypes come and go, but Slovakia-based Klein Vision’s AirCar might be here to stay in the form of a mass-produced airborne sports car that’s expected to take to the skies—and pavement—next year.
Since its maiden flight in 2021, the first prototype has completed 170 flight hours, with more than 500 takeoffs and landings. Now, Anton Zajac, who co-founded the company with ex-Audi and BMW engineer Stefan Klein, has revealed to New Atlas that the final, fifth-generation prototype will fly in September, at which point it’s expected to receive the necessary Part 23/CS-23 certification with the EASA and/or the US FAA. If all goes as planned the AirCar will enter production before customer deliveries begin in early 2026.
The morph from car to aircraft is seamless to the point of sci-fi. “You align the car in the direction of the runway,” Zajac told New Atlas, “and you push a button on the steering wheel. That turns the steering wheel into a yoke so you can control the ailerons. At the same time you can push or pull it to control the elevators. There are two additional pedals that serve as rudder controls.”
The transition takes just 80 seconds. The car’s wings lift, unfold and lock into place at a 27-foot wingspan. Meanwhile, the tail extends backward and the AirCar’s 3.2-liter V6 engine, made by South Africa’s Adept Airmotive, is disconnected from the four wheels and connected to a pusher propeller behind the cabin. The naturally aspirated base model will offer 280 horsepower, and the top-of-the-line twin-turbo iteration will have 340 horsepower on tap.
“Cruising speed in the air is 135 knots, which is 155 miles per hour, said Zajac. When you’re on the road, it’s a sports car and you can easily go 124 mph, which is enough to get you a high-range speeding ticket in most countries. It doesn’t have oxygen tanks installed, so the ceiling of this car is 10,000 feet—but we could easily install that and it’d have a ceiling of 18,000 ft.”
With up to 35.2 gallons of high-octane gasoline carried in three tanks, “You can fly about 1,000 km (620 miles),”adds Zajac. “As a car, you can drive up to 800 km (497 miles).” Fuel is available at typical gas stations, and in car mode, it’s 6.6 feet wide and 16 feet long, roughly the same dimensions of a Mercedes S-Class.
The AirCar has received some serious praise from celebrities who have seen it in action. Todd Douglas Miller, the Emmy Award-winning director behind the acclaimed documentary Apollo 11, was present at the recent 2025 Living Legends of Aviation Gala Dinner in Beverley Hills, where Klein was awarded a Special Recognition Award for Engineering Excellence. “From the cockpit of another aircraft, I watched the AirCar in flight, Miller said. “Stefan Klein and Klein Vision have turned the impossible into reality, merging dreams and science fiction into something breathtakingly real.”
Last year, James May, the renowned host of Top Gear, visited Klein Vision and witnessed the AirCar’s flight at an international airport in Slovakia, exclaiming, “The AirCar has landed. Very rarely am I lost for words, but I am lost for words!”
Klein Vision’s AirCar will be certified and ready for sale by Q1 of 2026, say its founders. If that happens, it’ll be the first flying car to hit the market in 75 years. As for price, expect something between $800,000 and $1.2 million.