Flying Cars From Alef Aeronautics Again Become Real Thanks To Former Tesla Investors

JAKARTA - The concept of flying cars is nothing new. Even inventors have tried several times to add wings to wheeled motorized vehicles over the last few decades but with very limited success.

Jim Dukhovny, founder of Alef Aeronautics, hopes to change that opinion. His California-based company has produced a new approach to moving land vehicles to the sky and has attracted at least one leading venture capitalist to fund its project.

Model A Alef, which has just emerged from a seven-year preparatory period, doesn't look like a flying car in old films. But it looks more like Bruce Willis' flying taxi in 1997 film "The Fifth Element."

An unusual performance, which features a body turning on its side to become a wing after liftoff, is just one aspect of the Draper Team's interest. He is the initial investor to fund Tesla Inc and SpaceX, Elon Musk's company. The Draper team through Draper Associates Fund V has backed Alef for $3 million in initial capital.

After Draper made a simple initial investment, "I put in more (money) when I saw that they had made a prototype of a small drone that did exactly what they told me," he said in an email. The details are amazing. The sides of the car become wings when the plane moves horizontally.

Based in Santa Clara at the heart of Silicon Valley, Alef has designed Model A, an electric car that looks swoopy but relatively conventional, with the ability to take off and land vertically. And of course, it can fly.

Dukhovny, who is Alef's CEO, has never made a car until now. He is a computer scientist, software designer, science fiction fan, and entrepreneur who has run an online gaming site called Intellectual Casino.

Alef “flying car” CEO Jim Dukhovny pic.twitter.com/2PvRgy23BQ

— Eliyahu Kamisher (@eli_kamisher) October 19, 2022

In an interview, he said the Model A was handmade for sale for 300,000 US dollars, with production and initial shipments scheduled for 2025. The price tag is the same starting price planned for a Cadillac electric vehicle., Celestiq, which arrived for customers in early 2024, according to Cadillac General Motors Co. parent.

One feature that distinguishes Model A from the previous flying car version was its way of flying. Once lifted from the ground, the cockpit rotates and the carbon fiber body reverses, then moves forward, driven by a series of propellers. Most of the other's latest efforts by competitors resemble giant drones and are unable to make wheeled trips on land.

"All cars are wings," said Dukhovny, as quoted by Reuters.

Alef estimates the driving distance of this flying car is 200 miles (322 km) and its flight range reaches a radius of 100 miles (160 km).

Dukhovny has a bigger trick on his sleeves for 2030, which is a proposed Model Z sedan, with a 200-mile flight range and 400-mile driving range and a projected price of $35,000.

"It's no more complicated than Toyota Corolla," he said. "Our goal is to ensure the same price."