An Ambitious Flight Will Take The Skies From Tokyo, Japan

On the tech front and other general areas of life, Japanese have many firsts. They are daring and overly experimenting and you would be quick to dismiss some of their groundbreakers, woe unto you.

In August 2018, the Japanese government announced a public-private partnership that will focus on bringing to the world the first flying cars. According to officials, the focus is to put in place plans to commercialize the concept.

Among partners listed for this endeavor are Boeing, Airbus, Japanese airliner All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines, NEC and the Toyota through its brainchild the Cartivator. In a bid to underscore the importance of the project Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga noted highlighted what such vehicles are meant to do.

“[Flying cars] are expected to solve issues of transportation in remote islands or mountainous areas, or rescue operations and goods transport in disaster,” he said. It is reported that Toyota and affiliated companies have invested close to 42.5 million yen ($522,000) in the project with plans to use it to light the Olympic flame when Japan’s hosts the Games in 2020.

This is an are of interest for several operators with research being done by companies including Uber, Germany’s Lithium Aviation, Safran in France among others.