This contraption may look like it’s straight out of a sci-fi movie but it’s actually legit.
It’s called the LMV 496 La Moto Volante, which translates to ‘The Flying Motorcycle’.
This jet-powered machine will set you back a pretty penny, though – but more on that later.
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We’ve seen our fair share of flying cars of late, like the Xpeng X2, which recently completed a test flight across a Chinese city, but this is the first time we’ve seen a flying motorcycle.
So, who’s behind it? That would be Frenchman, Ludovic Lazareth, who’s made a name for himself with extreme car and motorcycle customs.
These include a Mini pickup powered by a 3.5-liter Range Rover engine, a trike with a Ferrari V8 under the hood, and a custom Yamaha FZR1000 with Tron-style bodywork and a supercharger bolted on.
But as weird and wonderful as these creations are, they don’t compare to the LMV 496 La Moto Volante.
Defying all odds, including gravity, the flying motorcycle is an update on yet another mind-bending machine – the LM-847.
This tilting four-wheeler is built around a fire-breathing 470-hp Maserati engine.
With the LMV 496 La Moto Volante, though, Lazareth swapped that petrol-powered mill to an electric powertrain that would give it a 62-mile (99-km) range.
But for its party trick, pull a switch, and the wheels hydraulically move from their orientation to a horizontal one.
Four jet turbines that pop out from the four-wheel hubs rumble into action and, 60 seconds later, you have lift-off.
Speaking of which, those four jet turbines are actually 96,000-rpm JetCat jet turbines, giving this 308 lb flying motorcycle 529 lb of thrust, which equates to a whopping 1,300 horsepower.
Hidden within the composite body is a kerosene tank, with enough fuel capacity to allow the LMV 496 to hover above ground for 10 minutes.
While in flight, the dashboard displays all the essentials, like speed, position, altitude, etc, with the joysticks either side of the handlebar used to control the rush of ecstasy.
There’s two extra turbines either side of the chassis to handle more weight or provide more thrust.
And, in case you were wondering, the LMV 496 can only hover up to 3.3 feet above ground – it can’t actually fly away.
Apparently, only five examples of the flying motorcycle were going to be made, each carrying a price tag of almost half a million dollars.
Maybe this is where Elon Musk got his idea for creating a hovering Tesla from.
