Deputy investment, trade and industry minister (MITI) Sim Tze Tzin has revealed that some Chinese companies have approached the ministry about using Malaysia as a testing ground for urban air mobility technologies, including flying cars, reports The Sun.
“Some Chinese companies have already engaged with MITI, and they want to make Malaysia a testing ground for urban mobility, meaning flying cars,” he told reporters at the kick-off of the Malaysian Aerospace Roadmap Development for low-altitude economy (LAE) and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) digitalisation.
Discussions are still at an early stage, but the companies are also interested in potentially establishing manufacturing and service operations in Malaysia, Sim said.
Malaysia is developing a national LAE roadmap, benchmarking China, the UK, Japan, Germany and Singapore, and encompassing unmanned aircraft systems, drones, urban air mobility and autonomous flight. The roadmap is expected to be completed by year-end ahead of implementation next year.
“It’s a very exciting time because LAE is very new. Malaysia is among the first few countries to start this study and roadmap. We want to capture the future trend. We don’t want to be left behind,” he said.
“There’s a lot of regulatory work to be done. If you want to send all these deliveries, they have to be safe. You don’t want suddenly something drop from the sky and hit you, right?” he said.
“We can make projections and be very optimistic, but realistically, we need industry and the regulator to come together,” he added.
Around seven years ago, flying cars became a hot topic in Malaysia when then-entrepreneur development minister Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof revealed that a Malaysian prototype was being developed. A scale model was shown at the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace 2019 (LIMA 19) exhibition, which, although Aerodyne (the company behind it) said was not a flying car per se, became the subject of much ridicule.
The latest news on the project was in November 2019, when it emerged that the flying car in question was in fact the EHang 216, a passenger drone made by Chinese company Beijing Yi-Hang Creation Science & Technology Co. However, a day before its supposed first test flight, the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) announced that the EHang 216 had not been cleared for flight.
LOL
just a matter of time before MITI impose absurd ceiling price to protek cronies
Min 500k and the car must be able to fly more than 5cm
when madani took over the government, they said we will have our own flying car….hahahaha…..
as I’m staying within 3km radius to airport, please don’t allow any of these flying vehicle above my taman/kampung!
Even AA flight don’t, those “sesat” heli/small aircraft does sometimes
Unlike airlplanes or helicopters, mutlirotors can’t glide like a plane or autorotate like a heli should there be engline failure(s).
If it becomes a reality, I will never be caught dead riding one (pun intended).
Ask that one Bersatu guy come back before covid showing us the KTK fan flying object.