When will there be a flying car in your garage? Not anytime soon.

Tesla/Handout/Reuters

People have been wishing for flying cars since the earliest days of flight and automobiles. Does Tesla’s demonstration earlier this month of a “flying” version of its new Roadster mean we’re close?

If you’re looking for a car that can safely travel on roads and highways while also flying significant distances, then no. But if you want a personal flying machine that operates at relatively low altitudes and travels the distance of most car trips, that’s closer to reality.

Enter the fast-growing world of electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, known by the somewhat cumbersome acronym of eVTOLs. They can’t travel on highways, and some don’t even have wheels. But many companies have been racing to develop vehicles straight out of science fiction movies and cartoons, with a few already selling aircraft.

“The idea of the ‘flying car’ has captured the public imagination for generations, and today that excitement is driving real investment and innovation across the industry,” said Kristina Menton, vice president of flight at Pivotal, one of the companies making eVTOLs. “The appeal is easy to understand. Why spend 90 minutes in traffic when you could spend 20 minutes in the sky?”

The eVTOLs are very lightweight compared to traditional cars, with limited carrying capacity, and can generally fly 100 miles at a time at most. They also can’t operate on roads.

But even without driving over asphalt, some proponents believe eVTOLs should be considered an automobile in the strictest definition of that word – a vehicle that can transport you from point A to point B.

Flying “cars” can appeal to drivers who want to avoid “roads (that are) are problematic and congested,” said Rani Plaut, cofounder and CEO of Air, an Israeli company that plans to build eVTOLs at a facility in Florida.

One company that claims to be developing a true flying car is California start-up Alef. CEO Jim Dukhovny said the initial version, which will have a top speed of about 55 mph, was designed to be both an aircraft and a car instead of adapting one or the other.

The 254-pound vehicle uses eight propellers inside its body to get airborne but also has four wheels and is designed for driving. The “Model A” can only carry one person that weighs less than the empty vehicle and doesn’t have standard safety equipment like airbags.

But Dukhovny wants it to be thought of as a car, not an eVTOL.

“EVTOLS are for the aviation market,” he said, “Our competition is Toyota, Ford, Tesla.”

But trying to do both, operate as a car and an aircraft, faces many basic engineering problems, said Roger Connor, curator of the vertical flight collection at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. That’s because aircraft are sensitive to weight, while cars need heavy equipment.

“Something that is a hybrid between the two is going to be a poor-performing aircraft and a poor-performing vehicle,” he told CNN.

Still, the Federal Aviation Administration has pushed for the development of eVTOLs, launching a series of testing programs across 26 states in March.

“ The future of aviation is here — and it’s going to dramatically improve how people and products move,” said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy when announcing the program.

One thing the FAA is investigating is who will be allowed to fly these aircraft. The expectation is that it will take far less training to fly an eVTOL than to pilot a small plane, helicopter or passenger plane – perhaps as short as a few days. But that is still a work in progress, Connor said.

“We haven’t licensed anybody in these new category aircraft yet,” he told CNN. “This is little bit of a new thing for everybody, and it is especially so for the FAA, since the aircraft are not airplanes and they’re not helicopters.”

Despite an appetite from the FAA, eVTOLs are still very much in development. Very few have been built and delivered to customers, and those available are very expensive.

Larger versions, or “air taxis” that carry a handful of passengers, will cost more than $1 million each, Connor said. Those for personal use will retail for less, but still cost anywhere from $60,000 up to $400,000 for a two-seat aircraft with some endurance and range.

“For $60,000, you’re basically getting a fancy drone that could carry 160 pounds or so for maybe 10 minutes,” he added.

Tesla has yet to say how much a “flying” version of its Roadster will cost, and no version, flying or grounded, will be for sale until at least 2028.

Unlike most eVTOLs, which use propellers, the Roadster utilized compressed air jets to leap over other cars and propel from the top of a ramp six or seven stories high during its product reveal earlier this month.

The Roadster also did not fly any appreciable distance, landing short of even the 120 feet the Wright Brothers achieved during their first flight at Kitty Hawk , North Carolina, in 1903. Tesla’s own site cautions the test model is “not approved for public road use.”

Still, the splashy demonstration has many in the industry cheering.

“When a company with Tesla’s reach puts the idea of everyday people leaving the ground in front of millions of viewers, it widens the conversation, and the industry benefits from that curiosity,” said Pivotal’s Menton.

But she cautions that her company is not a car company.

“We build aircraft, not flying cars,” she said.

特斯拉/路透社/供图

自航空和汽车诞生之初，人们就一直期盼着飞行汽车的到来。特斯拉本月初展示了其新款Roadster的“飞行”版本，这是否意味着我们离梦想成真已经不远了？

如果你想要一辆既能在公路和高速公路上安全行驶，又能飞行相当远距离的汽车，那么答案是否定的。但如果你想要的是一架在相对较低的高度飞行，飞行距离相当于大多数汽车旅行距离的个人飞行器，那它就更接近现实了。

欢迎来到快速发展的电动垂直起降飞行器（简称eVTOL）的世界。它们无法在公路上行驶，有些甚至没有轮子。但许多公司竞相开发出如同科幻电影和动画片中出现的飞行器，其中一些公司已经开始销售飞机。

“‘飞行汽车’的概念已经吸引了几代人的目光，如今，这种热情正在推动整个行业的真正投资和创新，”电动垂直起降飞行器（eVTOL）制造商之一Pivotal公司的飞行副总裁克里斯蒂娜·门顿表示。“它的吸引力很容易理解。与其花90分钟堵在路上，不如花20分钟在空中翱翔？”

与传统汽车相比，电动垂直起降飞行器非常轻便，但载货能力有限，一次飞行距离通常最多只有100英里。而且，它们也不能在道路上行驶。

但即使不行驶在沥青路面上，一些支持者也认为，eVTOL 应该被视为汽车，严格来说，它是一种可以将你从 A 点运送到 B 点的交通工具。

以色列公司 Air 的联合创始人兼首席执行官 Rani Plaut 表示，飞行“汽车”可以吸引那些想要避开“问题重重、拥堵不堪的道路”的驾驶员。该公司计划在佛罗里达州的一个工厂建造 eVTOL（电动垂直起降飞行器）。

加州初创公司Alef声称正在研发真正的飞行汽车。首席执行官吉姆·杜霍夫尼表示，最初的版本最高时速约为55英里/小时，其设计理念是兼具飞机和汽车的功能，而不是只改进其中一种。

这辆重254磅（约116公斤）的飞行器利用车身内部的八个螺旋桨升空，但它也配备了四个轮子，可以行驶。“A型”飞行器只能搭载一名体重低于空车重量的乘客，并且没有配备安全气囊等标准安全设备。

但杜霍夫尼希望人们把它看作是一辆汽车，而不是一架电动垂直起降飞行器。

“电动离岸飞行器面向航空市场，”他说，“我们的竞争对手是丰田、福特和特斯拉。”

但史密森尼国家航空航天博物馆垂直飞行藏品馆长罗杰·康纳表示，试图同时具备汽车和飞机的双重性能，会面临许多基本的工程难题。这是因为飞机对重量非常敏感，而汽车则需要重型设备。

“介于两者之间的混合体将会是一款性能不佳的飞机和一款性能不佳的车辆，”他告诉 CNN。

尽管如此，美国联邦航空管理局仍在推动电动垂直起降飞行器（eVTOL）的发展，并于 3 月份在 26 个州启动了一系列测试项目。

“航空的未来已来临——它将极大地改善人员和货物的运输方式，”交通部长肖恩·达菲在宣布该计划时表示。

美国联邦航空管理局（FAA）正在调查的一个问题是，哪些人将被允许驾驶这些飞机。预计驾驶电动垂直起降飞行器（eVTOL）所需的培训时间将远少于驾驶小型飞机、直升机或客机——可能只需几天。但康纳表示，这方面的工作仍在进行中。

“我们还没有给任何这类新型飞机颁发许可证，”他告诉CNN。“这对所有人来说都是个新事物，对美国联邦航空管理局（FAA）来说尤其如此，因为这些飞机既不是普通飞机，也不是直升机。”

尽管美国联邦航空管理局（FAA）对电动垂直起降飞行器（eVTOL）表现出浓厚的兴趣，但该技术仍处于研发阶段。目前已制造并交付给客户的eVTOL数量极少，而且价格昂贵。

康纳表示，更大尺寸的机型，或者说可以搭载少量乘客的“空中出租车”，每架造价将超过100万美元。私人用途的机型零售价会低一些，但一架具备一定续航能力和航程的双座飞机，售价仍然在6万美元到40万美元之间。

他补充说：“花 6 万美元，你基本上只能买到一架高级无人机，它能携带大约 160 磅的重量飞行 10 分钟左右。”

特斯拉尚未透露其 Roadster “飞行版”的售价，而且无论是飞行版还是地面版，至少在 2028 年之前都不会上市销售。

与大多数使用螺​​旋桨的 eVTOL 不同，Roadster 利用压缩空气喷气装置跃过其他汽车，并在本月初的产品发布会上从六七层楼高的坡道顶部弹射而出。

Roadster 也没有飞出任何明显的距离，甚至没有达到莱特兄弟 1903 年在北卡罗来纳州基蒂霍克首次飞行时达到的 120 英尺的距离。特斯拉自己的网站也警告说，该测试模型“未经批准在公共道路上使用”。

不过，这场引人注目的演示还是赢得了业内许多人的欢呼。

Pivotal 的 Menton 表示：“当像特斯拉这样拥有如此广泛影响力的公司将普通人离开地面的想法呈现在数百万观众面前时，它拓宽了讨论的范围，而整个行业也从这种好奇心中受益。”

但她提醒说，她的公司不是一家汽车公司。

“我们制造的是飞机，不是飞行汽车，”她说。