Every Flying Car Movie Gets This Wrong (Except The Fifth Element)

Back to the Future promised us flying cars by October 21, 2015. Here's why we still need roads: anything that hovers throws its own weight in air at the ground, and once you work out that wind, a flying car stops being a car and becomes an aircraft. We put the best flying-car movies through the three inspections a real aircraft has to pass (the license, the level and the ID), and only one passes all three. Another day in the yard! Back to the Future Part II, Blade Runner, Blade Runner 2049 and The Fifth Element. The real-world side: Henry Ford's 1940 prediction, the 1947 ConvAirCar and its wrong fuel gauge, the Aerocar (certified 1956, six built), Cyclone Olivia's record gust, Joby's NASA noise test, the Slovak AirCar, China's pilotless EHang, Joby and Uber in Dubai, and Tesla's Roadster hop this month. Thanks @AttilaAsztalos for the frontier :) Spoilers for all four films. CHAPTERS 00:00 Every flying car gets this wrong 01:40 The wind, the power and the rules 04:26 Back to the Future Part II (1989) 06:43 Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 08:11 The real flying cars of 2026 10:11 The Fifth Element (1997) 13:54 Which movie did we miss? Narrated by: Me :) SOURCES Hover physics (momentum theory): downwash v = √(T / 2ρA), hover power P = √(T³ / 2ρA). A 1.5 t car on ~2 m² of fans: ≈ 395 km/h of wind and ≈ 800 kW (1,100 hp) just to hover. Strongest gust ever measured, 408 km/h, Cyclone Olivia 1996 (Bureau of Meteorology): https://www.bom.gov.au/cyclone/history/olivia.shtml Joby / NASA acoustic test, 45.2 dBA at 500 m (New Atlas): https://newatlas.com/aircraft/nasa-joby-evtol-noise/ 100-hour inspection for aircraft carrying passengers for hire, 14 CFR 91.409: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2012-title14-vol2/pdf/CFR-2012-title14-vol2-sec91-409.pdf VFR cruising altitudes, 14 CFR 91.159: https://www.angleofattack.com/far/part-91/91-159/ ADS-B Out since January 1, 2020, 14 CFR 91.225: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2019-04-01/pdf/2019-06184.pdf Remote ID for drones, March 16, 2024 (FAA): https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/faa-extends-remote-id-enforcement-date-six-months Henry Ford's 1940 prediction (Popular Science): https://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-space/article/2001-12/looking-back-henry-fords-flivver The ConvAirCar and the wrong fuel gauge (MiGFlug): https://migflug.com/afterburner/convair-model-118-convaircar-wrong-fuel-gauge-1947/ The Aerocar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerocar $39,999.95 in 1989 money today: https://www.in2013dollars.com/1989-dollars-in-2026?amount=40 Uber Elevate sold to Joby (DroneLife): https://dronelife.com/2020/12/14/uber-elevate-sells-to-joby-aviation-the-advance-of-air-taxis-and-urban-air-mobility/ The AirCar's inter-city flight (FLYER): https://flyer.co.uk/klein-flying-car-completes-inter-city-flight/ EHang's operator certificates (AIN): https://ainonline.com/aviation-news/futureflight/2025-03-31/ehang-earns-worlds-first-evtol-air-operator-certificate Joby and Uber in Dubai (Arabian Business): https://www.arabianbusiness.com/business/transport/dubais-air-taxi-network Tesla's Roadster reveal (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/15/tesla-reveals-spacex-powered-roadster-that-flies-and-falls-with-style/ FOOTAGE The Fifth Element (1997, Gaumont / Columbia) · Back to the Future Part II (1989, Universal) · Blade Runner (1982, The Final Cut, Warner Bros.) · Blade Runner 2049 (2017, Alcon / Warner Bros.) · Toy Story (1995, Pixar / Disney) · Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017, EuropaCorp) · Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (2002, Lucasfilm) · Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968, United Artists). Every film line quoted is from the film itself. Real footage: Klein Vision (AirCar), EHang, Joby Aviation, Tesla, British Pathé (1949), Periscope Film (Aerocar), Pexels (helicopters, storm). PHOTOS (Wikimedia Commons) Peter Thiel: Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Tesla Model S Plaid: Peteratkins (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Taylor Aerocar: Cullen328 (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Henry Ford, Cyclone Olivia (NOAA), ConvAirCar: public domain