Way back in the mists of 2016, Professor Stefan Klein parted ways from a Slovak air mobility company called Aeromobil to work on his own flying car. An eight-strong team has since notched up some 100,000 man-hours to take design drawings into computer models and on to working prototypes.

The AirCar has now clocked up more than 70 hours of test flights to European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) standards, including 200 takeoffs and landings on cross-country jaunts, on its way to being awarded the Certificate of Airworthiness.

"Transportation Authority carefully monitored all stages of unique AirCar development from its start in 2017," said René Molnár, director of the Civil Aviation Division of the Transport Authority of Slovakia. "The transportation safety is our highest priority. AirCar combines top innovations with safety measures in line with EASA standards. It defines a new category of a sports car and a reliable aircraft. Its certification was both a challenging and fascinating task."

"The Certificate of Airworthiness is an official certificate issued in compliance with all EASA regulations for its member states," the company's cofounder, Anton Zajac, told us. "Each member state appoints local authority to issue certificates valid across the member countries. Hence, Aircar could fly into the UK and we do have plans to fly to London from Paris in near future.

"It is CoA in experimental category. We are, however, going to apply for EASA CS-23; The entire research and development has been done to comply with EASA standards. CS-23 will require production of three units, since they will be destroyed in the certification process – hence, CS-23 is order of magnitude more costly."