OITA, Japan -- A flying car achieved the first manned outdoor flight in Japan on Friday morning in a trial by a local consortium of aviation and automobile businesses, a big step for a technology seen as serving remote islands and mountainous regions that lack transportation.
The two-seater took off from an artificial island in the western Japanese city of Oita and traveled about 400 meters at an altitude of about 30 meters without a pilot controlling the plane. The vehicle, measuring 1.7 meters high and 5.6 meters wide, remained steady during a flight that lasted 3 minutes and 31 seconds.
