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Brabant may have a remarkable world first in August. After years of preparation, a flying car will probably drive around on the highways. The vehicle with the name PAL-V is made in Raamsdonksveer and will receive the final inspection from the RDW in August. “Then we really go on the road and we do that in Brabant. That is a solemn promise,” says commercial director Marco van den Bosch confidently.
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Rob Bartol
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Critics knew for certain after years of hosanna stories: the flying car, conceived and developed in Raamsdonksveer, will never fly. Cynicism reigned supreme when the company PAL-V had to announce again that a deadline had not been met and that had happened several times in recent years. For example, the company announced in 2018 that the first flying cars would be delivered in 2019 and that it would be postponed to 2021.
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“The procedure takes years, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.”
Van den Bosch admits frankly that the company has misjudged the authorities, worldwide and in the Netherlands, that grant permits and licenses to make driving and flying the PAL-V possible.
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“That is a procedure, we now know, which eats those years. On average about eleven years. We did not realize that properly, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Because the license of the RDW, which is necessary to be allowed on the road in the Netherlands is coming. With all previous inspections we got the green light and that means that we can get on the road next month. “
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Marco van den Bosch is delighted that it will really happen now:
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Van den Bosch expects that the bright orange car, with a folded rotor on the roof, will lead to much surprise and raised eyebrows on the highway. “I think there will be traffic jams when we first hit the road. I will wave goodbye to all the critics who no longer believed in it, but we will do so safely.”
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“In April next year, the people of Brabant will also see us flying.”
Investor confidence in the flying car has never disappeared. The 140 shareholders have invested around 60 million euros in the project in recent years, an amount that Van den Bosch neither denies nor confirms.
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The developments around the PAL-V seem to have accelerated after years of problems. “In April next year, the people of Brabant will also see them flying for the first time. No empty promise: they will also see us flying.”
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Economically, the flying car is also doing well, because a hundred of them have already been sold. The production of the cars, the assembly, has therefore started in Raamsdonksveer.
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The National Road Traffic Service did not want to say on Friday whether the license for the flying car was indeed arranged in August: “We do not provide information about inspections, that is to Pal-V itself,” says Thérèse de Vroomen of the RDW.
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