The Tesla Roadster Can Really Fly, But It’s Not a Real Car Yet

Elon Musk has often been compared to P.T. Barnum, and the new Tesla Roadster’s launch event certainly looked like a circus. Tesla unveiled the long-awaited electric sports car on Oct. 15 at a SpaceX rocket testing facility in McGregor, Texas, where it could show off its acrobatic abilities, including flying.Tesla’s first car was the Roadster that went on sale in 2008. It was essentially a Lotus Elise that Tesla transformed into an electric car to prove EVs could deliver enough performance, driving range and style to compete with internal combustion-powered vehicles. Tesla sold about 2,500 of them before moving on to more mainstream vehicles, like the Model S and Model 3, that it designed and engineered from scratch.After the company caught its stride, it unveiled a second-generation Roadster prototype in 2017, claiming it could reach 250 mph. A few days later, Mr. Musk said it would be offered with rocket technology from his other company, SpaceX, that might let it “fly short hops.” Tesla initially said it would be on sale by 2020, but it put the car on the back burner as it turned its attention to other projects and missed the date. It never stopped talking about it or working on it, however, and finally got it ready to show off again this year with quite a show, indeed. A suction system creates a near-vacuum under the car that allows it to drive vertically and upside down. TeslaThe latest Roadster, which no longer looks anything like the 2017 version, first appeared in front of a 60-foot-tall ramp that curved into a vertical wall with a horizontal overhang above it. It drove to the top and hung upside down for several seconds before reversing back to the ground. The white, wedge-shaped car then went up again and continued off the end of the ramp into the air, where thrusters rotated it upright and brought it gently to a safe landing on its tires. The stunt looked like a science fiction movie’s special effect. The Roadster pulled it off thanks to two systems.One is the promised SpaceX rocket package, which ejects compressed air from two tanks through 10 nozzles mounted around the car to provide thrust, lift and attitude adjustment. The other uses four ducted fans beneath the rear bumper to evacuate air from under the car, creating a near-vacuum that sucks it to the surface. This kind of system has been featured on a handful of racing and sports cars over the past half-century to improve their handling on flat ground, but none has been as powerful as the Roadster’s.The thruster system also includes four nozzles sticking out of the rear of the car that provide a burst of acceleration to help it sprint from a standstill to 60 mph in less than one second. The tanks are refilled between uses by a compressor built into the vehicle that runs off its battery.Thrusters and fans for the suction system are incorporated into the rear of the car. TeslaTesla demonstrated the thrusters a final time by having a Roadster drive up to a row of five Teslas, hop into the air and perform a corkscrew as it flew over them and stuck the landing on the other side. One major caveat is that the flying Roadsters were operating either autonomously or remotely with no one on board, for safety. Tesla also didn’t clarify if they had full interiors or production-sized batteries installed, but Mr. Musk proclaimed, “This will be an actual car that’s on the roads,” adding, “I’m not sure it’s necessarily legal in all jurisdictions, but there will be such a car that someone can own.”The Roadster comes standard as a two-seater, but the flying version will have only one seat. TeslaIn fact, Tesla will need an FAA certification for the Roadster to use powered lift. The exact classification has not been confirmed, but the Rocket version is advertised with a note that it is “not approved for public road use” and an “invite only” purchase. It also has just one seat, and the price has not been announced.The Roadster will also be available in a two-seat street-legal Performance model without the thruster package that can still accelerate to 60 mph in less than 1.6 seconds, which would make it the quickest production car in the world, along with a Thrust trim that only has the rear thrusters and can reach 60 mph in less than 0.9 seconds. Tesla said all Roadsters will have more than 300 miles of driving range and that the Rocket model will have a 230 mph top speed, but Mr. Musk wants it to be much faster.Tesla demonstrated the Roadster by having it jump and flip over a line of its other models. TeslaDuring the event, he told Tesla’s top engineer, Lars Moravy, that he wants it to hit Mach 0.5, which is nearly 384 mph. It’s hard to tell when he is being serious, but the team has time to increase the Roadster’s speed, because it isn’t slated to enter production until 2028.Two years? We’ll see.

The Tesla Roadster Can Really Fly, But It’s Not a Real Car Yet

The Tesla Roadster Can Really Fly, But It’s Not a Real Car Yet

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