World's first production-ready road, air-legal flying car, PAL-V Liberty on sale for USD 599,000

Dutch outfit PAL-V International B.V. has opened booking for the world's first production spec road and air-legal flying car, PAL-V Liberty. The flying car will be made available in two grades, Liberty Pioneer Edition and Liberty Sport. The former has been priced at $599,000 (approximately Rs 4 crore) on PAL-V's website, excluding taxes and only 90 units will be sold.

The price will also cover flight instruction sessions, power heating and personalisation options. First customer deliveries are scheduled for the end of 2018 and then the manufacturer will start delivery of the Liberty Sport model, priced at $399,000.

"After years of hard work, beating the technical and qualification challenges, our team succeeded in creating an innovative flying car that complies with existing safety standards determined by regulatory bodies around the world," said Robert Dingemanse, CEO of PAL-V.

The Libery has a three-wheel layout with foldable rotor blades. It takes only five to 10 minutes to convert the car from drive to fly mode or vice-versa. On road, Liberty is powered by a 99bhp motor with a top speed of 160kmph and hit 100 kmph in 9.0 seconds.

Up in air, the power comes from a 197bhp flying engine that generates a top speed of 179 kmph. Pal-V claims the Liberty can fly 500 km at a stretch on full tank. The Liberty can climb to a maximum altitude of 3500 m.

You need a license to fly the Liberty. The flying car also requires take-off space to get off the ground. Meaning, you cannot just lift the car when stuck in traffic as the vehicle requires small airstrips, aerodomes or glider sites for take offs.