Alef | Our Story

2015

By coincidence, two events happened at the same time in the Fall of 2015; one real and one fictional.

A moment from "Back To The Future". Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)

Fictional was: Marty McFly, a character from “Back To The Future”, traveled to the “future” of October 2015. Real was: 4 founders decided to form a company to build a real flying car.

During one of the Science Fiction lectures, Jim Dukhovny talked about how flying cars are finally possible in 2015. But he lacked technical skills to take on such a complicated task by himself. So, in several weeks four friends met at a Coupa Cafe in Palo Alto: Dr. Constantine Kisly, Pavel Markin, Oleg Petrov, Jim Dukhovny - each a technical genius.

Alef founders at Draper University. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)

The first real flying car was drawn on a napkin in a cafe. It was assumed it would take about 6 months to build one. Boy, was this an underestimate.

The constraints were: it has to be a real car (driving in driving lanes, parking in parking spaces), it has to have a vertical takeoff (otherwise it is not a real flying car), it has to be affordable for most people (not just the rich).

2016

In 2016, the first sub-scale prototype was built.

Early days of the team in their garage. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)

After rigorous software and hardware testing, including wind tunnel simulations and flow dynamics, a body of a real arm-size RV car was taken, and the proprietary propulsion was installed.

This scaled version, together with full-size propulsion was demonstrated for one of the most revolutionary and successful businessmen in history, Tim Draper, who after seeing the vehicle’s potential, became the pioneering investor of the company. Tim Draper also became a mentor and an inspiration to the team.

The next critical step was proving efficient forward flight, in order to prove the car as an everyday commuter vehicle. After this was accomplished, significant investment followed and the team moved forward at pace.

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)

The next big step was proving the efficient forward flight, in order for this flying car to become not a toy, but an everyday commute vehicle. After this was accomplished, a big round of investment sent the company on a full-time focused journey.

New professionals join the team. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)

Number of young bright engineers joined Armada.

Number of famous and world-expert people joined the Advisory Board.

Number of investors became believers and created a resourceful network spanning America, Europe and Asia.

2018

In 2018, the first full-size “skeleton” was flown. And it proved to confirm that calculations and subscale research was correct.

The Armada team at Santa Clara office. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)

Armada Aeronautics team. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)

2019

In 2019, after four years of R&D, a full-size prototype was flown. Shortly after that, the vehicle was converted for autonomous flight for the safe continuation of testing. Development continued and the first semi-public demo of a real full-size flying car was shown to a group of investors. It consisted of driving, vertical takeoff, and a small forward motion.

Photo by Savva Beliy under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)

Meanwhile the work on the patent continued, and finally USPTO indicated the allowance of key claims.

2021

By 2021 the company’s leadership team were ready to extend their focus beyond just engineering, and turned to the look and feel of their expanding brand. Their team expanded with the recruitment of famous exterior and interior former Bugatti and other major brands designer, Hirash Razaghi, whose mandate was to define the modern, sporty exterior design of the company’s consumer vehicle.

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)

A famous exterior and interior Bugatti and Jaguar designer from Sweden, Hirash Razaghi, was hired, and he produced a modern sporty look and feel car.

2022

The company officially rebranded under the name “Alef” and launched its public facing website along with a defined mission and vision for a new consumer future. Alef - as in the first letter of a Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Syrian and other alphabets – signifies the leading position Alef will eventually occupy in the hearts, minds, and garages of the public.