Supernal aims to launch flying cars at LA 2028 Olympics

Supernal LLC, the US-based urban air mobility (UAM) unit of Hyundai Motor Group, aims to launch its electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, dubbed S-A2, at the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics and produce 100-200 units of the flying car annually, said automobile industry sources on Friday.

It debuted the eVTOL concept at CES 2024 in January, the first flying car unveiled by a South Korean company.

Supernal designed the S-A2 to cruise 200 kilometers per hour at an altitude of up to 500 meters. But it has no official flight records yet.

It plans to undertake technology demonstrations of its life-size model at the end of this year and perform its prototype's demonstration flights next year.

It measures 10m in length and 15m in width. The aircraft can accommodate five people, including the pilot.

The eVTOL consists of a main wing equipped with eight all-tilting rotors, a V-shaped tail wing modeled after the Supernal logo and a passenger boarding space.

“We expect our UAM production capacity to increase to several thousand units by the end of the 2030s,” said a Supernel official.

In the Korean UAM roadmap released in 2020, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport expected UAMs to be commercialized in South Korea from the end of 2025. 

South Korea is behind the US and China in the flying car market. XPeng, EHang and other Chinese companies are commercializing flying cars this year.

Hyundai Motor Group established Supernal in 2021 to develop advanced air mobility vehicles.

Hyundai Mobis Co., an automotive parts maker, is developing powertrain systems and other parts optimized for the S-A1 air vehicles. 

Write to Jung-Eun Shin at newyearis@hankyung.com
 


Yeonhee Kim edited this article.