Samson Sky Switchblade is a flying car that's faster than most supercars

This is the Samson Sky Switchblade, a flying car with switchblade-like wings that’s faster than most supercars on the road today.

The first thing we should point out is that this is not an eVTOL.

There’s a very good reason why we’re making this distinction.

And despite looking like it came out of a Blade Runner movie, it’s also probably not as expensive as you think.

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This flying car is faster than anything in its wheelbase category

Samson Sky built the first prototype in the early part of 2023, but that was a ground-only prototype, as in a flying car that couldn’t fly.

The company’s CEO Sam Bousfield told Supercar Blondie that their main goal is to make the vehicle absolutely flawless on the road before taking it to the skies.

“We wanted to nail the car part first. Our first priority was to make sure this worked perfectly as a car,” Bousfield told Supercar Blondie.

This strategy certainly paid off, considering this vehicle was faster around a racetrack than any vehicle in its wheelbase category.

After nailing the ‘car’ part, they built a flying prototype, which completed its maiden flight a few months later, in late 2023.

Samson Sky Switchblade is a high-performance vehicle on the road, but it’s also a very fast aircraft.

With two people, the pilot and one passenger, the aircraft can reach 4,877 meters (16,000 feet) and cruising speeds of 260KM/H (160MPH).

The project certainly looks promising, and a lot of people seem to agree because the company has already generated $500 million in revenue from around 2,500 orders, around 140 of which are from people who’ve already paid the full price.

“These [customers] will be the first ones to receive a production Switchblade as soon as it’s ready. In the order they made their reservation,” Bousfield explained.

The reason why this is not an eVTOL

Electric Vertical Take-Off Landing vehicles – commonly known as eVTOL – are on the rise, but these are mostly designed for daily commuters, whereas Samson Sky Switchblade is primarily designed for regional travelers.

The goal is to give people who travel 500-800 kilometers across different cities or states a faster and more efficient alternative to flying commercial or driving their car.

This brings us on the biggest hurdle the company has faced so far.

This is because there are 22 million ‘regional travelers’ in the US, and most (around 80 percent) don’t have a pilot’s license, and they obviously need one.

Samson Sky realized that obtaining a license would likely be the main bottleneck when it comes to flying cars, which is why it’s building its own flight simulator, and putting a strong focus on what Bousfield thinks is the hardest part of leaning how to maneuver an aircraft.

“Flying is the easy part. The hardest part is you’re basically learning a new language,” he explained.

“It’s English, of course, but there’s a whole jargon and different accents and so on. [And it tires you out]. That’s part of the reason why pilot schools have a high dropout rate.”

Being able to relay and understand clear and accurate instructions and information is crucial, and Samson is taking a different approach when it comes to training.

In short, the company wants to avoid overloading trainees with information by taking it one step at a time, for as long as it takes.

One more thing to bear in mind is that Samson Sky Switchblade is a flying car in the truest sense: it can fly as an aircraft and drive as a car.

You can still buy it even if you don’t have a pilot’s license, even though that obviously means you can drive it but can’t fly it.

And it’s not as outrageously expensive as you’d expect.

Samson Sky estimates a retail price of around $200,000, which is competitive for a supercar and exceptional for a light-sport aircraft.