Vehicles that will one day fly above the cities of the future have taken a step closer to reality, thanks to a project being funded by one of the world’s largest car manufacturers.

Toyota has invested in a group of its employees who have been working on developing a flying car in their spare time. And a manned* test flight of the concept, dubbed Skydrive, is planned by the end of 2018.

The ideas behind Skydrive came to life in 2012, when Tsubasa Nakamura and a group of his friends won a competition with their initial design for a flying vehicle, under the team name Cartivator. The team of 30 began developing Skydrive in 2014 and since then the project has gone from strength to strength, gaining funding and successfully testing out proof of concept-scale models.

But with Toyota now behind the plans, a full-scale prototype will be developed for an eventual manned test flight. The motor corporation is investing US$350,000 to help Skydrive become reality.

Cartivator hopes that a working version will be available by 2020, so that Skydrive can light the flame at the Olympic games being held in Tokyo that year.

Skydrive will be 2.9m long, 1.3m wide and 1.1m high, which the manufacturers claim will make it the world’s smallest flying car. It has a target flight speed of 100 km/h and a driving speed of 93km/h.

Skydrive features technology commonly found in drones*, including the use of four rotor blades. By varying the speed of each rotor, the direction of travel can be controlled. It will hover at a height of less than 10m and will use vertical take-off and landing* technology, which does not require roads or runways.(SD-Agencies)