I don’t know what I expected the ASKA A5 to look like in person, but the machine lurking in a parking lot just outside of Monterey Regional Airport wasn’t it. Like a cross between a piece of commercial farm equipment and a contraption from G.I. Joe’s nemesis Cobra, the A5 makes a curious first impression.
At a minimum, it’s less flying car and more drivable aircraft, and believe it or not that’s an important distinction.
I got taken for a quick spin in the A5 across the taxiway at Monterey Regional Airport ahead of the Pebble Beach Concours. It was one of the airport’s busiest days of the year, with high-flying VIPs touching down every few minutes in a near-endless string of private jets. The road-legal prototype A5 looked admittedly awkward amid the rows of Gulfstreams and Learjets.
Legal on the road, and newly legal to take...
