There is an updated version of this story here on the new Skyrunner.
The SkyRunner is that mythical beast that we’ve been waiting for since the early days of science fiction – it’s a flying car. Or a flying off-road buggy if you want to be nit-picky.
The first Skyrunner prototype was developed by company founder Gilo Cardozo as a highly capable off-road buggy that could fly by way of a paraglider wing and rear-mounted propeller. Gilo decided to test his creation by flying it from London to Tombouctou over a period of 42 days, he passed through England, France, Spain, Morocco and then across the Sahara through Mauritania, Mali and Senegal – covering a total distance of 6000kms.
Using lessons learnt from this journey, Gilo set to work on creating a production ready version of the SkyRunner – this new version would be lighter, stronger, more powerful and safer than it’s rough-round-the-edges forefather.
Powered by an advanced 1.0 litre EcoBoost Direct Injection Turbo engine capable of 125mph and 0-60 in 4.3 seconds (on the ground). Once you’re ready to take to the air, you flip a switch to send power to the propeller, you then layout the paraglider wing behind you, strap yourself into the cockpit and hit the go pedal. The propeller blows air back that fills the wing, lifting it overhead and launching you up to a maximum altitude of 15,000 ft. Should the engine happen to fail, you already have a deployed parachute overhead allowing you to float down slowly and if that fails, there’s an emergency ballistic parachute.
Skyrunner orders are now being taken for a deposit of $1,500 USD, the total price is set to be $139,000 USD – making it slightly cheaper than a Ferrari and much more fun to fly.
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
