Turkey has plans to be a top player in market of futuristic flying cars

Flying cars are still years away, but the Turkish government has already made a promise to be a top player in the market. “Turkey will play for the world leadership in the area of also flying cars, with its youth who believe in themselves and have a vision as large as the Milky Way Galaxy,” Turkish Industry and Technology Minister Mustafa Varank said on July 6.

Wednesday July 07 2021 12:53 am

This collage photo shows Technology Minister Mustafa Varank and a prototype of Turkey's first domestic flying car.

Duvar English

Turkish Industry and Technology Minister Mustafa Varank has said that Turkey has made so much progress in technology that it will take a position of "world leadership" in the area of futuristic flying cars.

“Turkey will play for the world leadership in the area of also flying cars, with its youth who believe in themselves and have a vision as large as the Milky Way Galaxy. Together with our youth, we will write stories of success together in all innovative areas, just as unmanned aerial vehicles are known throughout the whole world,” Varank said during a ceremony on July 6.

The minister recalled that Vice President Fuat Oktay had made similar remarks in June and his statements had been met with disbelief.

“Our Vice President Fuat Oktay recently said, 'There will be a Turkey that will play for the world leadership in flying cars.' Upon this, a known group has moved to ridicule this remark,” Varank said, reiterating Oktay's quite ambitious vision.

“No matter if the opposition, whose vision cannot go beyond hay, believes it or not, we will write these success stories. Our potential is sufficient to do these because we trust in our youth,” Varank said.

Turkish defense company Baykar announced in September 2020 that the country's first indigenous flying car, called Cezeri, was successfully tested in Istanbul.

The chief technology officer of the company is Selçuk Bayraktar, who is President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's son-in-law.

At the time, Bayraktar argued that it will take an estimated 10-15 years for Cezeri to hit the roads.

Baykar, established in 1984, produces armed and non-armed drones, control systems, simulators, and avionics systems.