The world just moved one step closer to making The Jetsons a reality.

The futuristic family comedy, which first aired from 1962-1963 and then from 1985-1987, has been well know for the several devices that did not exist at the time but subsequently have not only been invented but are in common usage today.

Among those iconic features are flatscreen television, newspaper on a computer-like screen, a computer virus, video chat, tanning beds and home treadmills.

But one particular gadget has eluded reality since it first appeared on the cartoon almost 60 years ago – the flying car!

Last week, something truly amazing happened in Slovakia. A prototype flying car from Klein Vision completed a 35-minute flight between international airports in Nitra and Bratislava.

The hybrid car-aircraft, AirCar, is equipped with a BMW engine and runs on regular petrol-pump fuel.

According to creator Prof Stefan Klein, the AirCar can fly about 1,000km (600 miles) at a height of 8,200ft (2,500m), and had already clocked 40 hours in the air.

With narrow wings that fold down along its sides, the AirCar takes about two minutes to transform from a car into an aircraft.

It can carry two people with a combined weight limit of 200kg and requires a runway to take off and land, unlike drone-taxi prototypes which are also hoping to take the world into Jetsons territory in the near future.

With the AirCar proving it works, and looking good while doing so, it might just be time for a rewrite of the Fast and the Furious 10 script, because the ‘flying’ cars in F9 just don’t cut it.