Flying cars, the next frontier.

The first functional flight of the Autovolo

A year ago this was just a pretty image, rendering, those ideas that seem incredible, but no one knows if they will ever really come off paper, but now that is no longer the case. The British company Autovolo put the first functional prototype of its so-called Sigma into the air and that completely changes the weight of the conversation, because when something stops being a render that goes to heaven it enters another level.

The model is still on a reduced scale, about 1 by 4 of the actual size, but it is already validating flight behavior, stability and efficiency, and the figures that they continue to promise are aggressive, autonomy of about 800 km and maximum speed close to 350 km/h, simply translated, this is no longer an urban vehicle for short journeys, this enters the territory of trips between cities, almost replacing small regional flights and that is right where things start to get serious.

The most interesting thing is not only in the speed, it is in the changes that occurred in the project, the design evolved, it went from something more closed and conceptual to a structure with open rotors, more direct, more functional, less aesthetic, more engineering and that is usually a clear sign of maturity.

When a project begins to leave aside appearance it is because it is trying to function in the real world, another important point, the Sigma is now a two-seater aircraft and that is not a limitation, it is strategy, the idea is to allow someone with a simpler license, about 25 hours of training to be able to pilot, in practice it means drastically reducing the barrier to entry, it is no longer something exclusive to professional pilots, but there is still a huge difference between flying and converting without a product.

This prototype is just the beginning.

Now comes the most difficult stages, full-size version, complete flight tests, aeronautical certification and excavation production, and that is exactly where many projects stop, because not all progress happens in the sky, the real challenge remains on the ground, where the real world does not forgive mistakes.