A flying car for £2,750

While It’s not what futurists of the 1950s had in mind when they imagined flying cars we would all be driving by now, the four-seater aero car special that sold on eBay last week for £2,750 certainly looks like it could take to the skies.

The aero car special is based on a decommissioned Beechcraft B55 light aircraft and Daihatsu Hijet microvan. The result is without doubt the world’s most distinctive (grounded) flying car.

I want a flying car – what are the options?

The flying car is an engineering Holy Grail that has eluded inventors despite over half a century of work. However, ram-air wing (think modern-day parachute) and gyrocopter (as featured in the Bond film You Only Live Once) technology has made possible designs such as the SkyRunner and PAL-V.

Both the Skyrunner and PAL-V are best described as road-going light aircraft, rather than what the average person might imagine a true flying car to be, but despite decades of development, cars able to take off and land vertically (VTOL) have failed to materialise.