By Karina Smrkovsky / 20-03-2007

Designer John Bakker says that it will be possible to develop a car that can fly at 200 kilometres per hour. And to prove it, he says he will design and develop a car that can do so.

The car will be rolling off the production line in four years, he says. The car will be built in Belgium, because the Netherlands would be too expensive. A variety of flying cars have been designed and built since the 1960s, but none of these designs became a commercial success. Now John Bakker, an amateur pilot, is going to build one of his own. He has been working on a flying car since 1999. The model he has developed is based on the Carver One, a three-wheeler designed and developed in the Netherlands that is legal all over the world and can reach speeds of up to 190 km/h. The Carver One is very light and aerodynamic, which proved a good starting point for Bakker’s "Personal Air and Land Vehicle". The flying capability will be provided by a gyrocopter, a sort of helicopter in which the rotor blades are driven by a propeller behind the pilot. The combination of car and flying capability will result in a flying car. Another reason for the choice of Belgium is the availability of subsidies there. Bakker will be working with a range of research institutes and companies.

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