Flying Cars: So That's a Thing
Yes, really. On Thursday night at a SpaceX test site in McGregor, Texas, near Waco, Tesla finally showed off its next-generation Roadster, and the car left the ground. In a demo that ran under 30 minutes, the white two-seater climbed a multi-story inverted ramp, turned around in midair using thrusters, eased itself back down to the pavement, and later hopped over a lineup of other Tesla vehicles while twisting in the air.
It is the most literal answer yet to a promise Elon Musk has been making since 2018. It also comes with a stack of caveats worth reading before anyone starts planning a commute over I-5 traffic.
What Tesla actually showed
Here is what was demonstrated on stage, according to reporting from The Verge, TechCrunch and Reuters coverage of the event:
The car drove up a very tall ramp that curved until it was upside down, held on by a fan-based suction system underneath the car that Tesla says can generate up to 2 Gs of downforce.
At the top, it used cold-gas thrusters to flip around and lower itself gently to the ground.
It flew over the Model 3, Model Y, Cybertruck, Semi and Cybercab while in motion, a move Tesla engineering VP Lars Moravy called "a kick flip."
Tesla claimed a 0 to 60 mph run of 0.81 seconds.
That last number is a company claim from the event, not an independent test. The flight portions were controlled demonstrations at a closed test site, not a car flying around on public roads.
The three versions
Tesla's Roadster page now lists three trims:
Performance: "road ready," two seats, active aerodynamics and the suction downforce system.
Thrust: "race ready," two seats, adds rear cold-gas thrusters for the sub-one-second 0 to 60 run.
Rocket: "air ready," one seat, invite only, with about 10 cold-gas thrusters around the car. Tesla's own page says, "So yes, it can fly," and notes it is not approved for public road use.
Tesla's footnotes say the flight-related features are available with the Rocket trim only, which is not available in all regions.
Price, reservations and timeline
Musk did not announce a price during the event. Reuters reported that after the event, Tesla's reservation page showed a $50,000 deposit for the Performance version and a $250,000 deposit for the Thrust version. The Rocket is invite only.
Musk says production will start in 2028. Tesla also gave figures of more than 230 mph top speed and more than 300 miles of range. That range is less than half of what Tesla promised in 2017, when it first revealed the second-generation Roadster prototype and said deliveries would begin in 2020.
For context on the timeline: Musk first floated a "SpaceX option package" with roughly 10 small thrusters on Twitter in 2018, adding, "Maybe they will even allow a Tesla to fly." Late in 2025 he said he wanted to reveal the car by year end, then moved the date to April 1, 2026, joking that April Fools' Day gave him "some deniability." The reveal ultimately landed this October.
Confirmed vs. claimed
Confirmed: a Tesla Roadster prototype performed short, controlled thruster-assisted hops and an inverted-ramp drive at a private test site, and Tesla is taking deposits on two trims.
Claimed but not yet proven: the production timeline, the final specs, the 0 to 60 time in customer cars, and anything about how a flying version would be sold, certified or used by ordinary owners. Tesla has a long history of Roadster delays, so 2028 is a target, not a guarantee.
The regulatory reality
A car that drives on the road and a vehicle that flies answer to two different federal regulators. On the ground, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sets safety standards for cars. In the air, the Federal Aviation Administration governs anything that flies, along with pilot requirements and where and how high you can go.
Tesla has not said publicly how it plans to handle FAA rules for the Rocket trim, and neither agency has announced any approval. Tesla's own label that the Rocket is not approved for public road use is the clearest signal that, at least for now, this is a track and test-site machine, not a street-legal flying car.
What it means here in Oregon
For Willamette Valley drivers, the honest answer is not much, at least not yet. Nothing about this car changes the rules of the road in Oregon, and there is no path today to legally hop over traffic on Highway 22. If Tesla does ship the Performance or Thrust versions in 2028, they would be extremely expensive, extremely fast sports cars. The flying one, if it ever reaches customers, will likely live at private tracks and airfields.
Still, after nearly a decade of waiting, a Tesla Roadster finally did something nobody else's car can do on camera. Flying cars: so that's a thing. Whether you'll ever see one over Salem is a very different question.
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