Flying car all set to light 2020 Tokyo Olympics flame

TOKYO: Japanese car firm, Toyota is all set to fund a project which aims to bring the world’s smallest flying car to the skies using the latest drone technology. Japan will launch this flying car in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The Japanese car firm will give engineers £274,000 to develop jet-propelled vehicles that will travel up to 10 meters from the ground.

The company working on flying car is hoping to launch the manned prototype by the end of 2018, with the goal of a flying car being used to light the Olympic flame when the Tokyo Games open in 2020. The car being designed to light the Olympic flame has been titled as SkyDrive. It consists of three wheels, four sets of propellers, an intuitive operating system and diminutive dimensions of 9.5 feet by 4.2 feet. The speed of the flying car “SkyDrive” is expected to be around 62 miles per hour while hovering at heights of up to 32.8 feet in addition to land speeds of 93 miles per hour. The creators of the new flying car are focusing on noise issues, infrastructure creation, weather conditions and safety concerns. “We aim to create a world where anyone can fly in the sky anytime by 2050,” explains Cartivator’s creators in a mission station on their website, adding that their goal is to see a flying car being used to light the Tokyo Olympic flame in 2020. A global race to create the world’s first flying cars appears to be underway, with a growing number of companies in the US, Germany and China as well as Japan exploring ways to create flying car technology.

Regulators will have to be convinced the vehicles can be used safely before they develop a licensing system and new laws that would allow them to be commercialised.