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Google Exec's Secret Electric Flying Car Spotted. It Flies, But It's Not a Car

Ever since people invented both cars and planes, the thought of a flying car has been on everybody's mind. And yet, despite all these years and all the bright minds that have lived on this Earth and continue to do so, we still don't have such a vehicle.
Zee.Aero electric VTOL aircraft 5 photos
Photo: Steve Eggleston
Zee.Aero electric VTOL aircraft patent imageZee.Aero electric VTOL aircraftZee.Aero electric VTOL aircraft patent imageZee.Aero electric VTOL aircraft patent image
It's not for the lack of trying, though. There have been some designs, and a few of them got close to actually being useful, but at the end of the day there's one thing that doesn't change: airplanes need large wings, and even though the tuning industry has been doing this for ages, they needed a different approach to get a car flying.

The size of the wings was one problem, the distance needed for landing and take-off was another. What we actually need is a helicopter-car, a vehicle that can take off and land vertically (VTOL), because half the world population would otherwise have to work as traffic controllers.

Larry Page, Google co-founder and one of the billions of minds that dream about a flying car, is financing two startups which aim to create VTOL electric aircraft prototypes. Even though the vehicle was initially dubbed a 'flying car,' that has changed in the meantime meaning Mr. Page won't be the one to fulfill this dream of generations. Well, not yet, at least.

However, it does seem like one of the companies he's backing, Zee.Aero, has come up with a working vehicle and is now in the testing phase. The patent images for the unnamed aircraft have been around for a while, but this is the first time it's been spotted at the Hollister Airport in California, where the company owns a hangar.

It looks like the design remained pretty much unchanged - apart from that third window that is missing, we can't spot any differences. And, according to Mercury News quoting Steve Eggleston, the man who snapped the picture, it was seen silently hovering above ground just before the shutter was used, so it works.

Given the secrecy surrounding the project, we should probably be grateful for having as little information as this, because it doesn't look likely we'll get any through official channels very soon. We can't think of any immediate commercial use for this electric VTOL, so it's probably just a technological testbed for some later products. A flying car, maybe?
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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