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Tesla Roadster's flight tech: Fans, compressed air, and SpaceX rockets

infobae.com (Spanish) — October 18, 2026 at 01:01 AM UTC

El Tesla Roadster de Elon Musk, unveiled Thursday in McGregor, Texas, performed vertical ascents, inverted driving, and aerial rotations using suction fans and compressed air, not anti-gravity tech. The company plans production by 2028. The vehicle uses fans to reduce pressure under the chassis, creating up to 4,700 kilograms of downforce (2 G) for tire grip, plus ten Laval nozzles ejecting compressed air for thrust. Tesla claims over 80 kilonewtons of force, enabling 0-97 km/h in 0.81 seconds. Three variants are planned: Performance, Thrust, and Rocket, the latter restricted to invited guests and not road-legal. The compressed air system allows only brief maneuvers, with theoretical hover time under nine seconds.

With a significance score of 3.2, this news ranks in the top 9.5% of today's 29613 analyzed articles.

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