Photo: Pal-V
If you were thinking the Pal-V will be just another one of those flying car projects that looked great in theory but had little chance of becoming a reality, thing again. The guys making it seem to mean business.
Last time we've heard of Pal-V it was celebrating reaching an important milestone. It happened in October 2020, when the contraption passed the European road admission tests. The other side of the coin though, getting approval for the flying part, was still some time away.
And it still is, but closer now than it ever was after the Dutch company announced it completed the full certification basis with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), clearing the way for compliance demonstration. If all goes all, the EASA type certificate (which is expected in 2022) will be valid throughout Europe, but also in the U.S. and China.
“I’m proud to see the results of our work. We can now speed up the completion of the compliance demonstration phase. It’s hard to grasp the amount of work required to certify an aircraft,” said in a statement PAL-V Head of Airworthiness, Cees Borsboom.
“More than 10 years of analysis, test data, flight tests, and drive tests, led to this important milestone. In parallel, we already started compliance demonstration to obtain the type certificate, which will be followed by delivery of vehicles to our customers.”
The Pal-V is a gyrocopter of sorts that can double as a car. It is powered by a dual-engine that allows it to reach a top speed of 160 km/h (99 mph) on land or 140 km/h in the air (87 mph, economic cruise speed). There are several variants in the pipeline, with the limited edition Pioneer selling for EUR 499,000 ($602,000).
To be able to operate one, owners will have to own, of course, a driver’s license, but also flying license - luckily, the easiest one to get in the industry, which requires only 35 hours of training.
And it still is, but closer now than it ever was after the Dutch company announced it completed the full certification basis with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), clearing the way for compliance demonstration. If all goes all, the EASA type certificate (which is expected in 2022) will be valid throughout Europe, but also in the U.S. and China.
“I’m proud to see the results of our work. We can now speed up the completion of the compliance demonstration phase. It’s hard to grasp the amount of work required to certify an aircraft,” said in a statement PAL-V Head of Airworthiness, Cees Borsboom.
“More than 10 years of analysis, test data, flight tests, and drive tests, led to this important milestone. In parallel, we already started compliance demonstration to obtain the type certificate, which will be followed by delivery of vehicles to our customers.”
The Pal-V is a gyrocopter of sorts that can double as a car. It is powered by a dual-engine that allows it to reach a top speed of 160 km/h (99 mph) on land or 140 km/h in the air (87 mph, economic cruise speed). There are several variants in the pipeline, with the limited edition Pioneer selling for EUR 499,000 ($602,000).
To be able to operate one, owners will have to own, of course, a driver’s license, but also flying license - luckily, the easiest one to get in the industry, which requires only 35 hours of training.
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