Tesla’s Flying Roadster Is Spectacular — and Hard to Imagine on a Public Road
?s next-generation Roadster briefly left the ground, flipped in mid-air and drove upside down during a demonstration in Texas. The spectacle makes Elon ...
Tesla’s next-generation Roadster briefly left the ground, flipped in mid-air and drove upside down during a demonstration in Texas. The spectacle makes Elon Musk’s long-promised electric sports car look less like a conventional supercar and raises an immediate question: how would any of it work on public roads?
Tesla presented the two-seat vehicle at a SpaceX test site in McGregor on Thursday, nearly nine years after first showing a Roadster prototype. The company says production is planned to begin in 2028, extending a wait that had already outlasted earlier delivery promises.
Thrusters and fans, not a conventional car launch
The flying manoeuvres rely on compressed air, rather than rocket fuel, according to the reports. Ten thruster nozzles help lift and move the car through the air, while fans beneath the body pull it toward the road for grip. In the demonstration, the system helped the vehicle turn in mid-air and land after its brief flight.
The car also drove upside down on a ramp, using suction to stay attached. Musk joked that the fans could “suck the chrome off a trailer hitch.” It is a memorable image; the practical value is less obvious.
Tesla claims the Roadster can reach 60 miles per hour from a standstill in about 0.8 seconds and exceed 230 mph. Musk has said the eventual target is half the speed of sound. Those figures remain company claims, not proof of what a production model will deliver.
A showpiece with unresolved questions
The demonstration puts the Roadster’s unusual engineering in the spotlight, but it does not settle whether its airborne features can be used legally or safely on public roads. The reports say those questions remain unclear, as does the car’s commercial practicality.
That gap matters. A brief, controlled stunt at a test facility is not the same as a system suited to everyday traffic. Tesla has yet to put the redesigned car into production, and the schedule now points to 2028.
The project brings together Tesla’s electric-car ambitions and SpaceX engineering. For now, the Roadster’s most concrete promise is also its most audacious: a claimed 0-to-60-mph time of about 0.8 seconds.
Source: axios.com
