In our never-ending quest to worship all that’s rad on wheels, here’s a true holy roller for us all: the Lazareth LMV 496, otherwise known as “La Moto Volante.” Touted as the world’s first flying motorcycle, it was created by French bike designer Ludovic Lazareth, famed for birthing such wacky rides as the Maserati-V8-powered Wazuma V8M and the Ferrari-powered LM 847.
With the flip of a switch, the LMV 496 converts from ride to fly mode, achieving liftoff in about 60 seconds. There’s a 96,000-rpm JetCat jet turbine in the hub of each wheel; together the wheels tilt out and up with 1,300 horsepower of thrust, or approximately 10 minutes of flight time. Now we say “flight” loosely right now, as the current prototype only hovers about one meter off the ground. The engineers are still trying to figure out how to balance all that jet thrust.
All the wheels are equipped with parachutes, should any in-flight issues arise.
And lest we forget, the LMV 496 is also street legal, an electric motorcycle capable of covering around 60 miles per charge. Lazareth only plans to sell five of the bikes once they’ve perfected the jet power prowess, each costing around a half mill.
So, you know, start saving your euros.