Adding to the long list of transforming flying cars AeroMobil hopes to skip straight to the top of the heap with their take on the flying auto. With a sleek sci-fi design and clever technology AeroMobile may just be the closest so far to a practical car that can also fly.

The design of the hybrid has been evolving in the mind its inventor Stefan Klein since 1990. The tricky art of making reality match you mental image has produced numerous versions of the AeroMobil, now his company of the same name is finishing version 3.

The Slovakian company have already demonstrated the current version 2.5 for a year. While the video released in March may have slipped under the radar that may soon change as AreoMobil hope to have the latest version 3.0 ready to fly for the Pioneers Festival in Vienna on October 29.

Under its carbon fibre skin the transformer is powered by a Rotax 912 aircraft engine, with power shifting between the rear wheels and rear propeller via pilot controls. Weight is the enemy for all aircraft and Stefan has done well to keep the weight of the 2..5 down to 992 pounds empty .

Once the wings are folded behind the cockpit the AeroMobil is as compact as a car and can even fit into an ordinary car space, on the road it will cruise at up to 100mph. In the air with its 27 foot wingspan AeroMobil can fly at 124mph for a little over 3.5 hours on a single tank. Proving it is built to fly the AeroMobil actually gets better fuel economy as a plane with 410 mile range in the air and 310 mile range on the highway in car mode.

As with all flying cars the greatest hurdle is regulation or rather the regulators of airspace around the world, and our expectations. Regulators are very wary of opening airspace up to everyone that owns a car, uncontrolled traffic is the enemy of air traffic control.

When it comes to expectations movies may have spoiled us a little too, the Bladerunner world that sees cars do a hover take-off then speed off is a long way from the current reality of driving to an airport, filling in a flight plan and then waiting for a take-off slot or opportunity.

Amazon’s drones as a delivery service are also struggling against these same hurdles, the establishment of a system to control automated traffic such as flying cars and drones needs to happen before any of these dreams become a reality.

Reference: AeroMobil