‘The Ultimate Road Test for the World’s First Road Legal Flying Car’. Perhaps a big claim but no other flying car has driven from London and completed a ‘fly-drive’ across the Sahara to Timbuktu.

 

The concept began after Bear Grylls, Gilo Cardozo and Neil Laughton achieved a paramotor altitude record over mount Everest in 2007. Gilo began designing the car and Neil invited Tim to join the team to contribute his vehicle based overland experience. Two years in the planning, the convoy departed London on 13th January 2009, with a 12 man team, MAN Dakar support truck, a Unimog, and three KTM motorbikes. The bikes were quickest on all terrains and were invaluable for reconnaissance. 

 

Tim completed the entire journey on his KTM 640. Neil piloted the Skycar and set records for the first flight across The Straights of Gibraltar and the first crossing of the Sahara by flying car. The expedition took a route through the desert to Ben Amira, the second biggest rock monolith in the world after Uluru in Australia. The team were the only people in this remote and inhospitable region.

 

After punishing drives, temperatures ranging from -10 to 40+ degrees, soft sand, stuck vehicles, bike crashes and a couple of heavy landings for the Skycar, the team made it to Timbuktu after 44 days and 9306km.

 

The journey was filmed for Channel 4 and become an episode in the ‘Daredevils’ series.

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