Meet George Jetson …
Santa Clara, California-based Alef Aeronautics is a composite automotive/aviation concern about the business of developing a novel flying car dubbed the Model “A”—an appellation likely to incur unwanted attention of Ford’s lawyers.
Alef’s Model A instantiates a lift-cruise scheme evocative of eVTOL aircraft the likes of Archer’s Midnight, Lilium’s Lilium Jet, and Joby’s S4 2.0.
Alef's proposed flying car is electrically-powered and designed to be driven much like a conventional automobile on public roads. The vehicle’s ostensible vertical takeoff and landing capabilities are unremarkable. Its forward-flight architecture, however, is eminently unique.
Alef’s Model A comprises a spherical occupant compartment, not unlike a human-sized hamster-ball, set within a carbon-fiber body with open, mesh-like dorsal and ventral surfaces. Contained within the essentially flow-through body are four dual-rotor assemblies mounted perpendicularly to the vehicle’s on-road longitudinal axis and positioned just inboard of its four wheels.
Following vertical takeoff—after the fashion of a giant, ducted, quad-copter drone—the vehicle, in its entirety, pivots ninety-degrees about its longitudinal axis. So oriented, the car’s lateral surfaces (right-and-left-side doors and front and rear quarter-panels) function as upper-and-lower airfoils. To facilitate forward flight, the Model A’s spherical occupant compartment and rotors swivel to face the pilot and passenger forward and direct the thrust columns aft.
Expressed simply, Alef’s Model A, in level cruise flight, resembles a skeletonized 1951 Buick Le Saber moving roof-first through the air.
Alef CEO Jim Dukhovny asserts the Model A is intended to remain primarily earthbound, taking to the air only for short distances (and at low altitudes) to avoid ground obstacles the likes of traffic-snarls, accidents, or road-construction. Dukhovny refers to such instances as hop scenarios, “where the customer mainly uses the vehicle as a car, and only ‘hops’ over obstacles when needed.”
Alef contends the Model A is street-legal insomuch as its design adheres to contemporary automotive laws and regulations.
A highly-regarded startup, Alef—the name of which denotes the first letter of the Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Syrian, and additional alphabets—is backed by Tim Draper, a renowned venture capitalist whose money helped launch both Tesla and SpaceX. In October 2022, Draper Associates Fund V invested $3-million in the company.
Comes now June 2023 and news of Alef’s Model A having received FAA Special Airworthiness Certification.
Mr. Dukhovny enthused: "We're excited to receive this certification from the FAA. It allows us to move closer to bringing people an environmentally friendly and faster commute, saving individuals and companies hours each week."
Alef claims its Model A, when certified, will have a road-range of two-hundred statute miles, an in-flight range of 110-statute miles, and command a retail price of approximately $300,000. Interested parties, by dint of Alef’s presale program, may secure spots on the Model A waiting list for $150. Alternatively, very interested parties may plunk-down $1,500 for what Alef calls a priority spot on subject list.
Since the company’s October 2022 founding, Alef has received pre-order commitments for some 440 Model A’s—representing upwards of $132-million in revenue—from both private and commercial sector customers.
Speaking to the subject of public interest in his company’s inchoate product, Mr. Dukhovny set forth: “Alef is aiming to deliver the first real flying car in history, and to receive so many early pre-orders is incredible validation of the market potential we're looking to satisfy.
"Further, we're extremely pleased to see orders from both individual and corporate consumers in such a short space of time after our unveiling. This is a great investment in the key sustainable transportation on the ground and in the air."
Rumors have been whispered of an Alef Model “Z” sedan capable of in-flight and road-ranges of two-hundred and four-hundred statute-miles respectively. Reportedly, Dukhovny aspires to hold the as-of-yet unconfirmed Model Z’s unit retail price to $35,000—the cost of a handsomely appointed Toyota Corolla.
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