Fans of films like Blade Runner, Back to the Future, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang rejoice. There's a new car in town and it can fly. PAL-V Europe NV, a company based in the Netherlands, has applied for and received a patent in India for its land and air vehicle.

Admittedly, the name might not be something to write home about. It's called the Personal Land and Air Vehicle (PAL-V) and can be driven to the nearest airfield before it takes off. On land, the vehicle reaches 100 km/hour in 10 seconds, with a maximum speed of 170 km/hour, and averages 12 km per litre of fuel. When airborne, it can fly at a maximum speed of 180 km/hour, and uses 28 litre of fuel per hour.

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The car made its first successful test flight in 2012, and the company has been developed a two-seater vehicle for commercial sale called the Pal-V One. In Europe, where the vehicle is looking for a 2016-17 release, the price has been set at €5,00,000. But it will take much longer for it to enter Indian shores, only after contending with legal and other aviation requirements.

The concept of the flying car goes back much earlier, when Glenn Curtiss, a pioneer of the US aviation industry, patented the idea for one in 1917. However, there were too many technological limitations to actually think of developing the vehicle until now.

Two years ago, Bangalore-based engineer AK Vishwanath announced plans for Avishcar, a flying car that is modelled on the flight of 26 different insect species. Unlike the Pal-V One's rotor-based design, it uses wings and could be attached to any car to turn it into an air vehicle.

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In 2015, Slovakia's Aeromobil, which plans on putting out a flying car in 2017, also carried out test runs for a prototype which uses wings. It crashed during a test flight.

Flying cars may become commercially viable as a mass market product, but not till the next 20-25 years. So don't expect your vehicle to take to the skies anytime soon.