New eVTOL Flying Car Aims for Takeoff in 2025

Austrian aviation company CycloTech has revealed it's building a demonstrator version of an eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) vehicle to showcase its propulsion system for electric flight. The firm is hoping to take the wraps off its BlackBird flying car by the end of this year, and commence test flights in early 2025.

CycloTech has been shaping its 360-degree thrust vectoring propulsion barrels, which it calls CycloRotors, over the last few years. It's keen to test the seventh generation of this propulsion system in this demonstrator. The company also says this is especially well suited to flying cars, because it's the only one that can control the thrust vector in strength and direction in a full 360-degree path.

The BlackBird will feature six CycloRotors to enable vertical take-off and landing, parallel parking, and braking and deceleration in mid-air. 

It'll end up being about three quarters of the size of CycloTech’s last concept model: 16 ft long, 7.5 ft wide, and 6.5 ft tall. With a maximum take-off weight of 750 lb., it'll manage a top speed of 75 mph.

The six CycloRotor configuration includes two rotors along the length of the vehicle; that enables precise sideways and backward flight, as well as mid-air braking – all without tilting or banking. That should give passengers a smooth ride regardless of the conditions in the air. 

If cyclotech can get this newest version ‘off the ground,’ the future of aviation could look a lot like what was promised all those years ago in The Jetsons.