Using a Flying Car for business purposes can be a tremendous time and money-saver. However, what will you do about insurance? This is a frequently asked question.
While there is currently no insurance policy for flying cars, there is a short-term solution and a long-term solution already in place. In Samson Sky’ discussions with AIG, the largest insurer of aircraft worldwide, they have indicated that until there are a larger number of flying cars out there, they will provide two policies for these futuristic vehicles – one will cover it’s use as an aircraft and one will insure it as a motorcycle/car. In using a flying car for business, insurance will simply be one part of the operating costs, just like any of the “old fashioned” vehicles you have been using for decades.
So, the burning question is, when will your vehicle is considered a car and when will it be considered an airplane? Clearly this is something that the insurance company will specify. Operating as car is fairly straightforward. If you are parked in a shopping mall parking lot and get a ding in your door panel, this would obviously be covered by your car insurance.
It gets a bit trickier when you try to define exactly when your vehicle is a plane. If you’re at an airport, for example, you will be driving and flying. Perhaps the determining factor will be whether or not your vehicle has started transitioning into flying mode. For the Switchblade, this would mean that you have begun to swing the wings out from under the clamshell doors in the belly of the vehicle, and are extending the tail back into flight mode. Your three-wheeled sports car has now transformed into a 175 mph aircraft!
I’d like to leave you with one last thought on flying car insurance – one that while not necessarily obvious, could be quite important. It has long been the case that the greatest cause of flying accidents is pilot error. This includes, of course, flying in unsafe weather conditions. Sometimes, a pilot may want so badly to get to his destination, that he makes a poor decision and flies in weather he shouldn’t fly in.
Unfortunately this can lead to accidents. With a flying car, one can land before the weather ahead gets dangerous and continue the trip on the ground. You are never stopped, because you always have the option to fly or drive. This could make for safer flying, fewer accidents and fewer insurance claims.
– Virginia Hall