Ever-grounded and never-pretentious automaker Aston Martin is enlisting the help of Cranfield University, Cranfield Aerospace Solutions and jet-engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce to explore a flying car concept that will simply never happen. Advertisement The idea is to design the future of “personal air mobility,” which will allow the automaker to generate hype and look forward-thinking without actually having to rely on a product or reasonable market strategy. In doing so, they developed the Volante Vision Concept. The fanciful vehicle represents the gold-standard in nonexistent flying cars, with the announcement containing everything you’d expect. There’s no price. There are only renders. There’s no on-sale date. There’s a weird pod shape with sleek-looking wings. There’s a promise of electrification. There’s a promise of autonomy. There’s absolutely no basis in reality. In the release, Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer said this concept helps them plan for a congested future: “With the population in urban areas continuing to grow, congestion in towns and cities will become increasingly demanding. We need to look at alternative solutions to reduce congestion, cut pollution and improve mobility. Air travel will be a crucial part in the future of transportation, the Volante Vision Concept is the ultimate luxury mobility solution.” Advertisement While it’s great to imagine a world without traffic, it’s less pleasant if you replace that with swarms of glorified helicopters blocking out the sun. Plus, an experience-oriented grand touring and sports car company like Aston Martin is not particularly well-suited for this flying autonomous future that isn’t happening.<doc-sep>Not even James Bond had an Aston Martin like this. The British sports car maker revealed a concept version of a flying car, the Volante Vision Concept, at the Farnborough Airshow this week. Aston Martin has billed the futuristic vehicle as a luxury car for the skies. The autonomous hybrid-electric vehicle, which has room for three passengers, is designed for urban and inter-city travel, the company said. It’s also capable of vertical take-offs and landings. The vehicle could fly at top speeds of around 200 miles per hour, according to Reuters. “With the population in urban areas continuing to grow, congestion in towns and cities will become increasingly demanding,” Aston Martin President and CEO Dr. Andy Palmer said in a news release. “We need to look at alternative solutions to reduce congestion, cut pollution and improve mobility. Air travel will be a crucial part in the future of transportation; the Volante Vision Concept is the ultimate luxury mobility solution.” The company joins a growing list of car manufacturers, aviation companies and technology firms designing flying cars. Kitty Hawk, a startup backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, recently began taking pre-orders for a single-seat recreational model. Airbus, Uber and jet engine maker Rolls-Royce are working on their own flying vehicles. A Porsche executive told a German magazine that the automaker could build a flying car for use in a ride-sharing service. Aston Martin created the Volante Vision Concept in partnership with Cranfield University, Cranfield Aerospace Solutions and Rolls-Royce.<doc-sep>The big picture: The number of companies that have some form of flying vehicle planned or in development is huge. Now, British luxury sports car maker Aston Martin is joining the party. Revealed at the UK’s Farnborough Airshow, the Volante Vision Concept is described as "an exciting alternative transportation solution for customers across the globe." As the name suggests, the craft is still at the concept stage, but Aston Martin says it could become a future product. The company teamed up with Rolls-Royce’s aircraft engine division, Cranfield University, and Cranfield Aerospace Solutions for the vehicle, which was designed by Marek Reichman, Aston Martin’s Chief Creative Officer and studio head. The hybrid-electric craft will use the same vertical take-off and landing system (VTOL) found in similar flying vehicles, such as this one from Lilium. Aston Martin envisions it being used for urban and inner-city air travel, providing a fast, efficient, and congestion-free alternative to road vehicles, though it would also be capable of long-distance journeys. “The study would lead us to a craft that would be able to do London to Paris non-stop in about an hour. As the crow flies that’s about 200-250 miles, at a speed of about 200mph. Birmingham to London could be done in half an hour,” Aston Martin’s vice president and chief marketing officer, Simon Sproule, told Auto Express. Like many other flying vehicles in development, Aston Martin’s three-seater craft will have autonomous capabilities, allowing those without flying experience to set a destination and enjoy the ride. It would also work with existing helicopter infrastructure, so there would be no need to build new landing pads. No word on when the Volante Vision Concept might arrive, assuming it ever does, but with Audi, Porsche, Mercedes, Uber, Airbus, and many more working toward a future filled with flying cars, it’s safe to assume that Aston Martin doesn’t want to be left stuck on the ground.<doc-sep>Previous Next 1 of 9 Aston Martin has joined the race to put flying taxis in the skies above the world’s most crowded cities. The British company introduced a futuristic design study named Volante Vision at the biennial Farnborough Airshow that illustrates what the vehicle might look like when it embarks on its maiden voyage. The announcement describes the Volante Vision concept as a hybrid-electric aircraft with vertical take-off and landing capabilities. Think of it as a giant drone developed to carry passengers. It offers space for three adults arranged in a triangular configuration; one passenger sits front and center while two more travel side-by-side directly behind the front seat. Rolls-Royce — the plane maker, not the car maker — provides at least part of the propulsion system but Aston Martin stopped short of providing concrete technical details. We don’t know exactly what it’s powered by or how far it can travel and at what speed. The company notes its concept can fly itself thanks to state-of-the-art autonomous technology. Like Aston’s land-bound vehicles, the Volante Vision concept puts a strong focus on style and luxury. Design boss Marek Reichman points out his team drew inspiration from cars like the DB11, the Vantage, and the upcoming Valkyrie when drawing the Volante Vision. The company added a wide, high-resolution head-up display that looks like it comes from a fighter jet to replace the instrument cluster. It provides passengers with key data about the Vision Volante and its surroundings like its speed, its range, and its altitude. Bringing it to production would be reasonably straight-forward because it’s based on an existing technology quickly spreading across the automotive industry. Though it looks like a prop made for the next installment of Star Wars, Aston Martin suggests wealthy travelers will be able to commute in the Vision Volante in the near future. “The Volante Vision concept will enable us to travel further with our hourly commute, meaning we are able to live further away from where we work. Cities will grow, and towns that are today too far away from cities to be commutable will become suburban,” Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer noted in a statement. Rivals working on similar projects, like Uber and Airbus, tentatively plan to start producing their own flying taxis between 2020 and 2030. Though Aston hasn’t released its time frame yet, that is the rule it will need to play by if it wants to remain competitive in this burgeoning segment of the luxury market. Editors' Recommendations<doc-sep>
James Bond would love it. Aston Martin , maker of the luxury sports cars favoured by the fictional British spy, has now come up with a futuristic personal aircraft it has dubbed "a sports car for the skies". Aston Martin unveiled the three-seater hybrid-electric vehicle this week at the Farnborough Airshow and, though the concept remains for now the stuff of science fiction, believes it could help one day to revolutionise travel. The Volante Vision Concept design has vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capabilities and will be able to hit speeds of around 200 miles per hour (322 kph), "so you can go from the centre of Birmingham to the centre of London in about 30 minutes," Aston Martin's Simon Sproule told Reuters. Aviation and technology leaders are working to make electric-powered flying taxis a reality, including Airbus, U.S. ride-sharing firm Uber and a range of start-ups including one backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, called Kitty Hawk. (Image: AFP) Aston Martin believes it could corner the market for luxury flying vehicles in the future. "The same way that you have Uber and you have an Aston Martin, you'll have 'Uber in the skies’ and you'll have ‘Aston Martin in the skies'," said Sproule, adding that such an aircraft won't come cheap. "This is clearly a luxury object - it's a sports car for the skies - so pricing is going to be commensurate with that, so certainly into the seven figures." The company has partnered with Cranfield University, Cranfield Aerospace Solutions and British jet engine maker Rolls-Royce to develop the concept vehicle, including artificial intelligence-powered autonomous capabilities. (Image: AFP) "It feels like a fighter jet but at the same time it has the Aston Martin luxury," said David Debney, chief of future aircraft concepts at Rolls-Royce. Commenting on how to pilot the vehicle, Cranfield's Helen Atkinson said: "You've got to detect what's going on in the external environment and then turn that around incredibly quickly in the computer system with the artificial intelligence built in to actually achieve the necessary level of autonomy.” Separately at Farnborough, Rolls-Royce unveiled plans for a flying taxi - an electric vertical take-off and landing (EVTOL) vehicle which could carry four to five people at speeds of up to 250 miles (400 km) per hour for approximately 500 miles. The company said it was starting a search for partners to help develop a project it hopes could take to the skies as soon as early next decade.