A few folk have been asking – Do you need a pilot’s licence to ‘fly’ the new Tesla Roadster. The simple answer, actually the only answer, is no. You don’t. But since it did, officially, get airborne, let’s have a deeper look at what the fundamental differences are between this and an actual aircraft.

What can it do?

The Tesla is designed to do short, brief ‘hops’, using a cold-gas nitrogen thruster (and cushioning) system. This is basically gas stored under high pressure and released. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, and so release the gas downwards – you move upwards.

The Tesla can produce around 80kN of force – that’s about 18,000 lbs – and yhis is quite a lot given a Harrier Jump Jet produces around 86-106kN, but the big difference is how long it can sustain it for. A 2tonne Tesla with its 250kg of gas stored in 600lt tanks at a pressure between 5000 to 10,000psi probably only has a few seconds at full thrust.

Is it a rocket?

So, is it a rocket? Well, if you picture a rocket engine, you probably imagine a traditional, chemical-fuelled, big old combustion to ‘explode’ it off the ground sort of a thing. The Tesla uses 10 cold-gas nozzles instead. Cold-gas at high pressure is a lot less efficient than traditional rocket engines, and is sometimes referred to as the ‘simplest manifestation of a rocket engine’.

But the principle is similar. Sort of. We’re talking about Newton’s third law here really. The thrusters are what can accelerate the car from 0-60mph in under a second, but point them downwards and you get a sort of hover, hop and plop effect. This is controlled through four of them, while two on the nose help stabilise it in yaw*.

*Maybe not a licence, but probably will need some training to control it.

During the demonstration, it rose to around 69 feet, although arguably this was in part due to the height of the structure it launched off. It also has all-electric actuators connected to the thruster valves which can make super speedy adjustments to help maintain stability while it is ‘airborne’ (not on the ground)*.

*Maybe it does it itself and the ‘pilot’ will have minimal input, in which case absolutely no licence or training probably needed.

Is it a rocket car?

So it is a rocket car? While it works off a similar principle for that initial acceleration, road vehicles (I won’t call them cars) designed to break the land speed records tend to use turbofan jet engines to power them. The ThrustSSC which holds the current record, as well as being the only land vehicle to have broken the sound barrier, has two Rolls Royce jet engines (and was driven by an RAF Wing commander).

Okay, since we mentioned it earlier, is it more like a Harrier then? The Harrier is also a (Rolls Royce) turbofan powered vehicle. The nozzles use exhaust air through the rear ‘hot’ nozzles, and cold, compressed bypass air through the front to allow it to move vertically. Smaller ‘puffer’ jets help control it stability and steering wise.

The Tesla system releases high pressure gas to move it, the other two accelerate air using a gas turbine and rely on jet fuel. While the Tesla can only do brief bursts, the Harrier can sustain its hover, and the ThrustSSC is designed to move horizontally only so aside from the acceleration part of it, not so similar either.

Is it a…

OK, ok, a helicopt—No! Uses rotor blades which do push air downwards, but mostly work off the same principles as an aircraft wing.What about the James Bond flying car? Nope, the AMC Matador had a propeller on the front and conventional wings, and is cool and retro while this is not* and is modern.

Really, while the Tesla Roadster is (*arguably) quite cool, and while – yes – it has demonstrated that it can get airborne, it is about as flyable, and as much an aircraft, as a FlyBoard is.

So no, a pilot’s licence is not needed. Flying skills will not be involved. And since this is not approved (and I doubt it will be) for public roads, folk thinking they could get one and use it to hop over traffic jams, or rise to the top of multi-storey car parks are likely in for a big disappointment.