Tesla on Thursday unveiled its long-awaited new Roadster—and it can fly.
At SpaceX’s engine test and development facility in McGregor, Texas, CEO Elon Musk revealed what he billed as a true flying car—a street-legal vehicle capable of lifting off and taking to the skies. During the event, Tesla demonstrated how the vehicle uses SpaceX thrusters to get off the ground and softly land.
Musk called the flying Roadster the “culmination of incredible work by Tesla and SpaceX engineers working closely together to make something that you haven’t seen in any movie, that’s better than any James Bond car.” He said production would begin in 2028.
The question is whether owners of the new Roadster will actually be able to fly it outside of highly controlled environments.
The FAA has issued certification criteria for a different class of vehicles called powered-lift aircraft, which include electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxis under development by firms such as Joby Aviation, Archer Aviation, and Beta Technologies. These are not flying cars in the Jetsonian sense—rather, they are designed to lift off vertically like a helicopter from dedicated vertiports before transitioning to fixed-wings and whisking passengers across or between cities.
The FAA established the powered-lift category in 2024, making it the first new category of aircraft since helicopters. Manufacturers of eVTOL models have spent years developing vehicles that meet the agency’s certification guidance and initial pilot and operational requirements.
But the flying Roadster—which according to Musk will be an “actual car that’s on the roads”—could create a cascade of new problems for regulators. While the engineering is undeniably impressive, it is unclear whether the vehicle’s aerial capabilities will ever be street legal.
Flying Roadster Reveal
Before demonstrating the Roadster in flight, Musk cautioned that “success is not guaranteed.”
“It’ll probably work, but if it doesn’t work, we’re at a safe distance,” he said. “It is technically autonomous for this demo to make sure we don’t kill anyone.”
First, the Roadster drove up and down an inverted ramp at low speed, at one point stopping completely inverted. It then accelerated and departed the ramp upside down before its thrusters ignited, flipping the car upright and bringing it down gently.
Then came what Franz von Holzhausen, Tesla’s chief designer, called a “kickflip” maneuver. The Roadster accelerated toward a line of other Tesla vehicles and ignited its underbelly thrusters to take off. It completed something akin to an aileron roll while clearing the other vehicles.
Musk said a future demonstration may try to recreate Evel Knievel’s attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon in Idaho.
In addition to attitude control thrusters, the Roadster has four main thrusters in the rear diffuser area, which Musk said will allow it to “basically fly like a rocket” and perform maneuvers such as rolls. Lars Moravy, Tesla’s vice president of vehicle engineering, said the rear thrusters release compressed gas faster than the speed of sound, generating more than 80 kilonewtons of thrust.
Musk said the vehicle uses a rechargeable, “advanced, ultra-high-pressure air tank” that does not require special propellant. Per Moravy, it can hold up to 600 liters or 250 kilograms of compressed air, which is blasted through 10 nozzles.
According to Tesla, the Roadster was inspired by the venerable Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird and F-35 Lightning II. Von Holzhausen said it uses a full “steer-by-wire” system, with yokes, brakes, and throttle. Musk said the rear wing has variable pitch that can adjust downforce on the vehicle dynamically and automatically.
Moravy explained that the Roadster also has an underside fan suction system that can “pull up to two Gs,” allowing it to corner at high speeds or even stay upside down. Musk said it could “suck the chrome off a trailer hitch.”
“It can suck the car down at low speed to give us traction when we need it, and at high speed, we’ll open up the front and rear parts of the suction system to create even more flow underneath the car,” said Moravy.
Street Legal?
The Roadster demonstration was certainly eye-popping. But Musk himself said it is “not necessarily a safety optimized car” and conceded that he is “not sure it’s necessarily legal in all jurisdictions.”
The new Roadster’s flying abilities may be very limited. In order for drivers to become pilots and lift off from public roadways, Tesla would need to prove it meets federal motor vehicle safety standards as well as obtain FAA authorization. Owners would likely need some form of pilot certification as well.
State law would also come into play. Minnesota and New Hampshire are among the first to pass so-called “Jetson’s laws” that categorize roadable aircraft as motor vehicles, allowing them to both drive and fly. But other states have been more reluctant to approve such bills.
Tesla is not the only company developing what could be considered a true flying car.
Alef Aeronautics, which has proposed a Model A vehicle capable of lifting off from roadways and soaring over traffic, on Thursday shared video of its Model Zero—an ultralight prototype—flying over an older Tesla Roadster.
Alef said the video captures the company’s thousandth logged flight. The developer received FAA special airworthiness certification to begin flight testing in 2023. Like Tesla, it is backed by venture capitalist Tim Draper.
“Having competition is a good thing, especially from such a major company as Tesla,” said Jim Dukhovny, CEO of Alef, in a news release. “It proves the market, establishes a separate flying car category, creates industry for lobbying specific regulations, brings investor focus, helps compare technology, and creates a benchmark to measure against.”
Unlike the Roadster’s compressed gas thrusters, Alef uses distributed electric propulsion and makes use of the surrounding air for lift. The company has flight testing agreements with two California airports and plans to begin evaluations with the Model Zero before advancing to the commercial Model A.
Outside of Tesla and Alef, no U.S. companies are pursuing true flying cars. Samson Sky and Aska are developing winged drive-and-fly machines, but their models are designed to take off from dedicated launch sites rather than the road.
Samson Sky in September secured $80 million to support production of its Switchblade, for which it has not yet produced test articles. Aska has not provided a development update for its A5 in about two years.
Other companies, including Pivotal, Doroni Aerospace, Jetson, and Air, are developing personal eVTOL aircraft that are not designed for driving. Jetson made its first U.S. customer delivery to Anduril founder Palmer Luckey in 2025, while the other manufacturers aim to begin deliveries in the near future.
Joby, Archer, Beta, and other eVTOL air taxi developers are demonstrating prototype aircraft under the FAA’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP), but their production aircraft are likely still a few years away from commercialization and routine passenger-carrying flights.