ARIDGE Soars in Dubai with World’s First Public Manned Flying Car

Editorial Team

Last updated 14-10-2025

4 min

ARIDGE, formerly known as XPENG AEROHT, completed Dubai's first public manned flying car flight.

Partnerships with key Middle Eastern groups secured 600 orders for the Land Aircraft Carrier.

Mass production begins in Guangzhou, aiming to sell flying vehicles by 2027.

The Land Aircraft Carrier showcases modular design, blending driving and flying seamlessly.

MENA region's policies support futuristic transport innovations, making it ripe for global expansion.

It’s not every day you hear about a car that literally takes off—but that’s exactly what XPENG AEROHT, now rebranded as ARIDGE, has pulled off. The Chinese flying car specialist made headlines in Dubai with the first public manned flight of its Land Aircraft Carrier, marking a major step in bringing personal aviation closer to everyday reality. And believe it or not, this wasn’t just a publicity stunt; the company also landed a record-breaking 600 orders from across the Middle East.

Those deals came through partnerships with the UAE’s Ali & Sons Group, Qatar’s Almana Group, Kuwait’s ALSAYER Group, and the Chinese Business Council in the UAE. It’s a hefty vote of confidence, showing that the region is ready to embrace flying cars as more than a futuristic fantasy. XPENG says consumer sales could kick off as early as 2027, which—if you ask me—is pretty spot on timing given how fast the region is leaning into mobility innovation.

The Dubai flight itself was fully manned and backed by special permits from the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority. It showcased not only the craft’s sleek transitions between driving and flying but also its reliability under real conditions. Officials including H.H. Sheikh Al Mur bin Maktoum Al Maktoum and H.H. Sheikh Humaid Abdulla Rashed Ahmed Almualla were on hand, alongside the Chinese Consul General Ou Boqian. Must’ve been quite a sight, that mix of royalty, regulators, and a car hovering into the skyline.

Now, a quick rewind. Over the past twelve years, XPENG AEROHT has spent more than $600 million on research and development, pulling together a 1,200-strong R&D team and filing nearly a thousand patents. The momentum really kicked off when the company began testing in the Middle East in 2022, before dazzling tech lovers at CES 2024 with its eVTOL model. The Land Aircraft Carrier, however, is the one turning heads—it’s already entering mass production, backed by a factory in Guangzhou capable of churning out 10,000 units a year.

Michael Du, the company’s Vice President and CFO, said the region’s “forward-looking policies” make it an ideal place to scale globally. I reckon he’s right; Dubai’s ambition for futuristic transport has always been hard to ignore. On the flip side, I’m still a bit cautious… flying cars sound thrilling, but they could easily turn into a bit of a faff with regulations and infrastructure catching up.

Under the new ARIDGE brand, the firm wants to “connect sky and earth”—and that’s not just clever branding. Its *A868* model, now in development, pushes things further with tilt-rotor technology, a hybrid powertrain, and room for six passengers cruising at over 360 km/h. Quite the leap from your morning commute, eh?

The Land Aircraft Carrier itself keeps things practical—if such a word can even apply here. Its modular setup means the flying part tucks neatly into the “mothership” car’s trunk. With one command, it detaches, takes off, and lands—designed, they say, to make flying as easy as driving. There’s even a single-stick control that rolls six separate flight operations into one joystick. Apparently, if something goes wrong mid-air, the system reacts automatically within milliseconds.

At *Arageek*, we’ve often talked about how MENA’s innovation scene isn’t just catching up—it’s leaping forward. And seeing something like this unfold in Dubai feels like living in a future we used to read about. I’m chuffed to bits that entrepreneurs here are not just watching change happen but shaping it, piece by piece, skyward.

With its rebrand, solid partnerships, and that spectacular flight over the Gulf, ARIDGE seems to be turning the “freedom to fly” into something real. Whether it becomes as routine as a school run is anyone’s guess, but for now… it’s definately one for the books.

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