AeroMobil, a Slovakian company, plans to start selling its creation, the AeroMobil 3.0, in 2017.

The company claims on its site that the vehicle “transforms in seconds from an automobile to an airplane” by using “existing infrastructure created for automobiles and planes.”

The vehicle is gas-powered and has wings that fold, which allows it to be parked like a car, though it is nearly 20 feet long.

The company’s website features a video where the AeroMobil 3.0 drives out of a hangar and goes down a highway, sharing the road with regular cars until it arrives at an airstrip. The car then unfolds its wings and takes off from a stretch of grass, rather than a paved tarmac, and flies through the air like any other small airplane.

AeroMobil spokesman Stefan Vadocz said his company hasn’t nailed down an exact price because it’s not ready yet.

“The prototype is a work in progress,” he said in an email. But he said to expect the price to be several hundreds of thousands of euros, somewhere in between a sports car and a light sports aircraft.

The vehicle seats two people — the pilot and a passenger — and its single propeller is located to the rear of the plane.

The company said the car’s top speed on the road is at least 99 mph (about 159 kmph) and while flying is at least 124 mph. It can fly for 435 miles before running out of gas.

It has a steel framework and carbon coating and is powered by a Rotax 912, a four-cylinder aircraft engine from BRP of Austria.

Flying cars aren’t exactly new. The concept has been around since long before “The Jetsons” popularized the idea in the 1960s.

It’s been a regular topic in Popular Science ever since World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker wrote about it in 1924.

The AeroMobil 3.0 has at least one competitor, the Terrafugia Transition, which also runs on gas and has folding wings. Terrafugia has said in the past that it plans to release the Transition into the market this year.

斯洛伐克公司“AeroMobil”计划在2017年开售创意新品AeroMobil 3.0。

AeroMobil在官网上发文称，这款飞行汽车“能利用现有的汽车和飞机基础配置”，“在几秒内从汽车变成飞机”。

AeroMobil 3.0是汽油动力车，两翼可折叠，折起后可以像正常车辆一样停靠，不过，该车车身长近20英尺（约6米）。

AeroMobi在官网公布了介绍视频。视频中，AeroMobil 3.0从飞机库中驶向高速路，和普通汽车一起行驶。进入飞机跑道后，它张开双翼，没有从平坦的柏油路面起飞，而是在草场上升空，像其他任何小型飞机一样在空中翱翔。

AeroMobil的发言人史蒂芬· 瓦多茨表示，公司目前还未对此款飞行汽车进行具体定价，因为产品尚未完全成型。

他在邮件中写道：“原型机仍在制造中。”价格预计会在数十万欧元，介于跑车和轻型运动类飞机之间。

AeroMobil 3.0可容纳两人：一名驾驶员和一名乘客。其单螺旋桨位于飞机尾部。AeroMobil公司说，AeroMobil 3.0飞行汽车在地面的最高时速至少99英里（约159公里），空中的最高时速至少达124英里。一满箱油可以支持435英里的飞行。这款车内部有钢架结构，外部是碳涂层，奥地利BRP公司制造的四缸“Rotax 912”航空引擎为其提供动力。

飞行汽车这个概念并不新鲜。虽然随动画片《杰森一家》的播出流行于上世纪60年代，但其实在那之前已经存在很久了。1924年，第一次世界大战的王牌飞行员艾迪· 里肯巴克写下了这个构想，之后，飞行汽车的概念就时常成为《大众科学》杂志上的话题。

AeroMobil 3.0已经至少有一个竞争对手了 — 同样为汽油动力、拥有折叠机翼的“特拉弗吉亚变形者”。美国特拉弗吉亚公司曾表示将于今年开始销售飞车。

    Words to Learn 相关词汇

   【飞机库】 fēijīkù hangar a building where aircraft are kept

    【跑道】pǎodào tarmac a road, airport runway, parking area, etc., paved with a layer of tar