Can't Decide What Kind of Flying Car to Get? Try These 10

If you can't tell from the look of the thing, Kitty Hawk designed its Flyer for the recreational end of this market. Its machine, backed by Google’s founder Larry Page, looks like something the Green Goblin would have ordered from Skymall, and for the moment can only be operated over water. Good news for wealthy lake house owners: The designers say it takes just minutes to learn to fly this thing, and there's no pilot's license required. Oh and there’s a net to stop you from tumbling onto the spinning props. It’ll be available at the end of the year.

Aurora’s designers really went to town on the fan front, squeezing 24 spinners onto their flying machine. The Lightning Strike's distributed electric propulsion system demonstrates a key advantage of small motors: Engineers were able to tuck them inside the wings, and make them swivel for vertical takeoff and landings---no runway required---but then face backwards for rapid horizontal flight. The first version of this aircraft has already completed tests for Darpa and the US Air Force, which are evaluating its usefulness.

The Volocoptor is a new take on the helicopter. Instead of two huge blades on top, it has 18 smaller ones, spaced out on a ring that approximates the reach of traditional rotors. German company e-Volo says this funky thing will have two seats and be super easy to fly. Twin batteries offer 30 minutes flying time, and it can be yours for a relatively reasonable $340,000.

Lilium Aviation’s Jet uses the same distributed electric propulsion concept as Aurora’s Lightning Strike. It’s a battery powered, oversized football, with a glass dome over the occupants and an array of swiveling fans on the wings at the back. A full-sized prototype took to the air in Munich, Germany in April, proving that the basic idea works. Lilium's claims of 190 miles of range at 190 mph may take some yet-to-be invented battery tech though.

Airbus builds the world’s largest passenger plane, the A380, along with around half of the other commercial jets that airlines operate. That’s to say, it knows how to build flying machines. The modular Pop.Up flying car stretches things though. The concept centers around a carbon fiber passenger pod, which can either clip onto wheels or under a giant quadcopter to reach its destination. You'll be shocked to hear there’s no timeframe for this one.

Airbus isn’t content with designing just one flying car. It’s also building Vahana, an autonomous flying machine. This one has eight rotors and tiltable wings, and it looks pretty cool with a lift-up cockpit revealing seating for one. The company is already working on a full-size prototype, and it planning a demonstration flight by the end of the year.

For motorcyclists, Flike’s machine could offer the best flying substitute. The Hungarian company is building a saddle surrounded by a triad of shrouded double-rotors. The engineers behind it say they were motivated by reading an article saying a drone would never be powerful enough to lift a human, and setting out to prove it wrong. They’ve managed a short flight in a prototype, and promise more to come.

Isreali company Eviation Aircraft picked this week’s Paris air Show to reveal its new all-electric aircraft. This one isn’t exactly a flying car, but it uses some of the same technology to make a more accessible private jet that runs on electricity. The sleek white concept looks like a Global Hawk military drone, with twin tails and long wings, but porthole windows for its human cargo. It’s designed to be ultra efficient, so this will be the machine to aim for when you need a little more range than just jumping over the traffic between home and work.