Crowd screams as Musk unveils flying Tesla Roadster that does mid-air flips and hits 230mph
A Tesla Roadster prototype, which the company first showed in 2017 after promising deliveries by 2020 — a launch that never came.
Elon Musk has revealed the long-awaited Tesla Roadster at SpaceX's McGregor, Texas facility, declaring 'flying cars are real' and promising deliveries by 2028. The vehicle drove up an inverted ramp, flipped through the air, then hovered to safety using attitude-control and rear rocket thrusters as the crowd roared. Musk boasted it will 'crush every track record that has ever existed' and can accelerate from 0 to 60mph in 0.81 seconds.
SpaceX cold-gas thrusters allow the Roadster to hover, while engineers say a suction fan produces up to 2G of downforce to keep it stable on the road.
Musk cautioned the car is 'not necessarily safety-optimised' but said it 'takes the fun meter to 11 out of ten.'
Securing a reservation requires an initial $5,000 deposit and then a $45,000 wire transfer, with the final purchase price expected to exceed $250,000.
