We've been hearing about Matt Pearson's dream to race multirotor flying cars for a few years now, with startup Alauda Aeronautics making its international public debut in 2019 and an awesome-looking full-sized electric racer revealed earlier this year. Now the team has released footage of the Airspeeder Mk3's first flight tests.

The first Airspeeder races are due to take place later this year, but the flying racers won't have a pilot sitting in the cockpit – the aircraft will be remotely controlled. And so it was for the first flights of the Alauda Mk3 at undisclosed test locations in the deserts of South Australia.

Test flights like these are an important part of meeting regulatory approval for the upcoming races, proving everything works as it should, including safety protocols. Indeed, Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority representatives were present at these historic first flights.