Humankind’s long-held obsession with merging a car and a plane may well have come to fruition – but not as many have envisaged it.

A prototype of the world’s most recent effort has emerged in Slovakia, created by Slovak designer and engineer Stefan Klein.

Inspired by the books about flying by French authors Jules Verne and Antoine de Saint Exupery, Klein has been working on his flying machine since the early 1990s.

I got the idea to start working on a vehicle of the future at university, but honestly, who hasn’t dreamt of flying while being stuck in the traffic?

Flying’s in my blood — my grandfather and my father flew ultra-light aircraft and I got my pilot’s license before I was old enough to drive a car.

While many of us dream of the kind of vehicle that can fly its way out of traffic with rocket-boosters mounted to the floor of the car, Klein’s design is more pragmatic.

The six-metre long vehicle fits neatly in a parking space or a garage and tanks up at any filling station. But once it reaches an airport it can unfold its wings within seconds, and fly away.

It also comes in handy that Klein’s company, Areomobil, is based in Slovakia – the world’s largest per-capita car producer. President of the Slovak Ultra Light Aviation Federation, Milan Ciba, said:

So far there have been about twenty attempts to manufacture a flying car around the globe.  Among them, Aeromobil appears very viable.

That’s good enough for us to make it official – flying cars are a thing now.

[Source : Sydney Morning Herald, YouTube]