Japan NEC displayed flying car floating steadily for a minute

Photo credit: CTV

ABIKO, Japan -- Japanese electronics maker NEC Corp. on Monday displayed a "flying car," a large drone-like machine with four propellers that floated on air steadily for about a minute.

For safety reasons the test flight reaching 3 metres (10 feet) high was held in a gigantic cage, at a NEC facility in a Tokyo suburb. The preparations such as the repeated checks on the machine and warnings to reporters to wear helmets took up more time than the two brief demonstrations.

The Japanese government is behind flying cars, with the goal of having people flying around in them by the 2030s.

Among the government-backed endeavours is a huge test course for flying cars that's built in an area devastated by the 2011 tsunami, quake and nuclear disasters in Fukushima in northeastern Japan. Mie, a prefecture in central Japan that's frequently used as a resort area by Hollywood celebrities, also hopes to use flying cars to connect its various islands.

Similar projects are popping up around world, such as Uber Air of the U.S.

A flying car by Japanese startup Cartivator crashed quickly in a 2017 demonstration. Cartivator Chief Executive Tomohiro Fukuzawa, who was at Monday's demonstration, said their machines were also flying longer lately.