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Dubai: Author Ian Fleming did not live to see his final book Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang published.
When the James Bond creator dreamt up the fantastical tale of the flying car, he perhaps never envisioned it making it to the silver screen, much less real life.
But almost six decades after Fleming’s Commander Caractacus Pott steered the vintage motor car across the pages of Fleming’s 1964 novel, soaring over lanes of traffic below, at least 200 companies around the world are investing in the development of flying cars.
Taking to the skies: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang hit the silver screen in 1968.
Classed as the urban air mobility market, the budding industry has attracted multimillion-dollar investment and lofty forecasts of a $US1 trillion ($1.5 trillion) valuation by 2040.
Last month the US Federal Aviation Authority released a white paper exploring the future of the emerging market, in which Boeing, Airbus, Rolls-Royce, Toyota, Uber and Amazon are among behemoths said to have invested.
Last year Dubai became the first city to launch an air mobility integrator centre, allowing companies to test electric aircraft with vertical take-off and landing.
An XPeng X2 electric flying taxi, developed by the Guangzhou-based XPeng Inc’s aviation affiliate, is tested in front of the Marina District in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in October 2022. Credit: AP
The Gulf city also hosted the first successful public flight of Chinese vehicle manufacturer XPeng’s X2 flying car earlier this year. The model carries two passengers, with a maximum flight speed of 130 km/h. It emits zero carbon dioxide and is designed to suit low-altitude cities.
Neighbouring Saudi Arabia’s proposed $US500 billion futuristic desert city NEOM also includes plans for flying cars. Last year the megaproject invested $US175 million in German urban air mobility manufacturer Volocopter, promising to make air taxis “an everyday reality for its residents and visitors”.
Almost 12,000 kilometres away, Australian start-up Pegasus International Group has taken notice, setting its sights firmly on the Gulf as a potential future export market for its flying cars.
The Melbourne-based start-up has produced three models of one-seater manned flying cars with police, civil aviation and air taxi function. The hybrid cars have a 60-litre petrol tank and can travel for three hours at a top speed of 160 km/h. Pegasus plans to begin scale production in 2024.
A hybrid flying car from the Melbourne-based start-up Pegasus.Credit:
It has 10 vehicles on order from China and Japan and was recently granted air worthiness registration by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.
“Flying cars are no longer figments of imagination in the realm of science fiction movies and will enter into mainstream service in the very near future,” the company says.
Pegasus chief technology officer Jacky Yang said the Gulf was “the most friendly and welcoming” market for new and emerging technologies, but future export success was contingent on closer trade ties between Australia and the UAE.
It has been 16 years since Australia began free trade agreement talks with Gulf Co-operation Council countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. While negotiations stalled around 2009, they re-emerged in 2021, when interest in Australia as a priority market was renewed.
Under separate negotiations, Australia is exploring a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) with the UAE.
Yang said closer trade ties could ensure that “whatever can be manufactured and certified in Australia can be used in the UAE market, too”.
He added: “Flying cars are destined to happen … it’s not question of if, but when.”
Pegasus is one of more than 35 stakeholders to make a submission to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which is exploring a prospective CEPA with the UAE.
The majority of Australia’s goods trade with the Middle East is with Gulf Co-operation Countries, including the UAE.Credit:
Tariff-free flying car export, reciprocal regulatory approval and support for bilateral research and development would all be essential to supporting an Australian flying car export market, Yang said.
“The UAE, and Dubai in particular, has developed a relatively advanced regulatory framework around flying cars and drones that makes commercialisation more feasible than in many other jurisdictions.”
Total two-way goods and services trade between Australia and Gulf Co-operation Council countries totalled $12.8 billion in 2020-21, with major export products including meat, dairy, vegetables, sugar, wheat and resources.
Negotiations for a free trade agreement with the region are likely to take a back seat while protracted talks for an agreement with the European Union remain ongoing after stalling in July.
Both Australia and the EU have publicly expressed their ambition to settle the agreement this year.
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