Renault reveals flying 4 | FOS Future Lab
The Renault 4 is 60 years old and there have been no shortage of celebrations for this pivotal model in the marque’s history. What is perhaps the most bizarre final flourish is this, the AIR4. This interpretation of the “blue jeans car” is anything but down to Earth, given that it’s a flying model.
A collaboration with TheArsenale, the AIR4 is just a show car at the moment, though it does, “provide an innovative insight into how the Renault 4 could look in another 60 years”. If that turns out to be true, then the Renault 4 of 2081 will very much resemble the 1961 original, albeit with a selection of ‘modern’ upgrades. LED lighting signatures and the lack of wheels don’t detract from this retro show car’s obvious lineage.
So why turn a Renault 4 into a flying car? Well, the original is often seen as one of those cars that helped make motoring egalitarian: it was a car for people who might not have had a car before. It was a symbol of independence and of freedom, which are values very much in line with companies like TheArsenale who want to get cars airborne.
What’s not very ‘Renault 4’ is that the whole thing is made of carbon-fibre. Getting the humble Renault to the stage of being fully made of carbon and airworthy was no small task. Lots of calculations, measurements and digital testing were necessary. It turns out being an aircraft needs a lot of structural integrity, something the original Renault 4 didn’t have to worry about to the same degree.
Powering the AIR4 are 22,000mAh worth of batteries sending their energy to twin-blade propellers at each corner of the car. They generate around 95kg of vertical thrust each, or 380kg for the whole car. Top speed horizontally is 58mph – a heady speed for the original 4 – and it can reach an altitude of up to 700 metres. What the AIR4 isn’t, is versatile, in terms of being an actual car. There are no wheels and in fact, the retro body pretty much serves as a Renault 4-shaped canopy for what seems to be very much more aircraft rather than car, in spite of appearances.
“After a year-long celebration we wanted to create something unconventional to close up the 60th anniversary of 4L,” highlights Arnaud Belloni, Renault Brand Global Marketing Director. “This collaboration with TheArsenale was a natural fit. The flying show-car AIR4 is something unseen and a wink to how this icon could look like in another 60 years.”
Following the digital presentation of the car today, the AIR4 is due to go on display in Paris at the Atelier Renault on the Champs Elysées for all of December. It’ll be joined by original Renault 4s, so the comparisons could be fun. Then it’s a spell of globetrotting for the AIR4, with Miami, New York and Macau booked in for 2022.
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