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First flight of full-size ‘flying race car’

This is a pilotless 'flying race car'

Courtesy: Airspeeder

Location: Adelaide, Australia

It took to the sky in its maiden flight

ahead of an electric flying Grand Prix due to be held later this year

(SOUNDBITE) (English) MATT PEARSON, FOUNDER ALAUDA AERONAUTICS AND AIRSPEEDER SAYING:"It is a momentous day. I think the big thing for us is being able to show and confirm that we've gone through the first flights with the Mark 3 vehicle. We haven't been able to share anything like and it's been a huge piece of engineering work to get to this point and to be able to showcase the Mark 3 to the world and show that flying car racing is just round the corner and we've come this far. That's pretty huge."

The multicopter craft is based on a F1 car

Its thrust-to-weight ratio reportedly exceeds that of an F15 fighter jet

Its creators see it as a stepping stone to a piloted version

(SOUNDBITE) (English) MATT PEARSON, FOUNDER ALAUDA AERONAUTICS AND AIRSPEEDER SAYING:"I looked back at what happened 100 years ago, or over 100 years ago, in the last great mobility revolutions when the dawn of the automobile and the aeroplane and what accelerated that? What drove acceptance? What drove technology? It was always racing. If you go back far enough the first application is always racing."