California-based Alef Aeronautics, working on Flying Cars, Attracts Tesla Investors

Alef Aeronautics, California-based company has developed a new technique to transferring terrestrial vehicles into the skies, which has drawn the attention of at least one famous venture capitalist.

Highlights

► Alef Aeronautics have developed a unique technique to transfer terrestrial vehicles into skies.

► Tesla Investor already associated with the Alef Aeronautics.

► Alef wants to keep the price point as a constant in making these kind of cars.

The concept of a flying car is not new; for decades, innovators have attempted to add wings to wheeled motor vehicles with minimal success. Alef Aeronautics founder Jim Dukhovny intends to change that equation. His California-based company has developed a new technique to transferring terrestrial vehicles into the skies, which has drawn the attention of at least one famous venture financier.

Alef's Model A, which has only recently emerged from a seven-year gestation period, resembles Bruce Willis' flying taxi in the 1997 film "The Fifth Element" rather than the flying vehicles of yesteryear.

Tim Draper, an early investor in Elon Musk's Tesla Inc and SpaceX, whose Draper Associates Fund V has supported Alef with $3 million in venture money, was drawn to the distinctive design, which features a body that flips on its side to form the wing after lift-off. Draper stated in an email that after a tiny first investment, "I put more (money) in when I saw that they had produced a little drone prototype that accomplished precisely what they assured me it would do." "The design is outstanding." When the plane gets horizontal, the sides of the car become the wings."

Alef, based in Santa Clara, California, has built the Model A, a swoopy yet conventional-looking electric car with the capacity to take off and land vertically. And, of course, to be able to fly. Dukhovny, Alef's CEO, has never constructed a car before. He is a computer scientist, software designer, science fiction fan, and serial entrepreneur who formerly ran the Intellectual Casino online gaming site.

In an interview, he stated that the hand-built Model A is expected to cost $300,000, with production and initial deliveries beginning in 2025. That price, by the way, is the same as the beginning price for the Cadillac brand's electric-vehicle flagship, the Celestiq, which is expected to arrive in early 2024, according to Cadillac parent General Motors Co.

The Model A's flight characteristics distinguish it from previous models of flying vehicles. When it lifts off the ground, the cockpit swivels and the carbon-fiber body spins on its side before moving ahead, propelled by a slew of propellers. Most other recent attempts by competitors resemble gigantic drones and are incapable of ground wheeled travel.

"The entire car is the wing," Dukhovny explained. Alef has a driving range of 200 miles (322 kilometres) and a flying range of 100 miles. Dukhovny has a larger surprise in store for 2030: a Model Z automobile with a flight range of 200 miles and a driving range of 400 miles - and an estimated price tag of $35,000.

"This isn't any more difficult than a Toyota Corolla," he remarked. "Our goal is to keep the price point consistent."

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