If you buy—or rather, build—a Samson Sky Switchblade flying car, you’ll need more than a driver’s license and a screwdriver; you’ll need a pilot license as well, and the company is planning to expand its pool of potential buyers by organizing flying lessons.
The Switchblade, which is designed as a street-legal three-wheel vehicle that can also be flown, by a pilot, as a kit-built experimental aircraft. FAA rules for that category require the purchaser to do at least 51% of the work in building it; Samson Sky is also offering a program to have one of their experts supervise the owner’s work.
The ‘plane’ is driven to the airport, where its wings and tail extend in about three minutes. It is rated to fly 450 miles at about 160 mph, and then land and quickly transform back to land mode.
At $170,000 each, there’s already a limited pool of people ready to buy, and for now, the pool is even more limited because only the owner can fly it. To make it possible for more owners, the company is partnering first with existing flying schools but is planning to develop its own, using simulators based on the Switchblade in the training.
