John and Heather Chirtea, a Delaware family, are among the first Americans to own a BlackFly personal air vehicle. This electric-powered flying car can fly up to 20 miles and requires only a driver's license to operate. The Chirteas believe this technology represents the future of personal transportation and hope to see more piloted and pilotless vehicles in the skies soon.
Chirtea and his daughter, Heather Chirtea, have a couple of planes in their hangar in Sussex County, Delaware. But the coolest in their collection isn't technically a plane — or a drone. It's a flying car.'When I was a kid, I always dreamed, laying in bed, of flying a magic carpet. I fly around in this thing. It's like I'm in a magic carpet,' he said. The Chirteas are among the first five Americans to own a BlackFly personal air vehicle.
They're licensed pilots, but they say they only need a driver's license to fly the BlackFly.'We feel like this is manifest destiny. Like, we are the first people in America to actually have a flying car,' Heather Chirtea said. Kentucky businessman Dean Owen is the second person to own a BlackFly, an experimental plane that does not need a runway to takeoff. The electric-powered flying car costs about $200,000 and can fly about 20 miles. It takes about 45 minutes to recharge. John and Heather Chirtea believe there will soon be a lot of piloted and pilotless vehicles like the BlackFly in the American skies. The personal air vehicle can go up to about 4,000 feet, but they generally don't fly that high. Operators typically fly them about 250 feet above ground because they have to be sure they have the power to get back down safely. BlackFly vehicles do have parachute systems for emergency situations. As reports of mysterious drones flying in the skies at night along the East Coast grow, the Chirteas said they don't want people to mistake their flying car for a drone.'What really concerns me is when politicians get on television and they say 'Oh, we're gonna shoot all these things down' and people think it's OK to shoot down, you know, some vehicle they see in the sky. You don't know if there's a person in there,' Heather Chirtea said.Although concerning, he does love the attention the drones have brought to the potential of electric personal air vehicles like hi
FLYING CAR BLACKFLY PERSONAL AIR VEHICLE ELECTRIC AVIATION FUTURE OF TRANSPORTATION
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