It's no surprise independent flight is a theme that comes up a lot in Hollywood. The power to fly is one of the most enduring aspirations of humankind, and it has been the subject of fantasy since ancient times.

James Bond's jetpack in Thunderball...

The hoverboard from Back to the Future...

Elliot's bicycle in E.T. the Extra Terrestrial...

Just as Icarus dreamed of flight, so have many engineers. As a result, there have been countless failed attempts at taking our daily commute skyward.

But a long and fruitless history of flying car attempts is not daunting one Slovakian firm. It says its design is ready to fly right now.

In an age where we're just starting to see widespread adoption of the electric car, is the flying car still a pipe dream? Let's look at this fantasy come to life.

AeroMobil

Štefan Klein has been chasing the dream of a flying car for more than 20 years.

After doing transport and design research for Audi, Volkswagen, and BMW, he assumed the role of lead designer at AeroMobil, a company he co-founded with former political revolutionary Juraj Vaculík.

Together with a team of aviation engineers and materials specialists, the two have created a number of functional designs for aircraft since 1990.

The AeroMobil 2.5, shown above, evolved out of their previous work and is their first “production-ready” design. A prototype first shown in 2013 will make its way across the skies at the Pioneers Festival on October 29 in Vienna, Austria.

It's part of the company's continuing design evolution. It debuted previous iterations as early as 2007, but this model is the first one that the company says is ready for the market.

Its engine is a Rotax 912, which is built by a subsidiary of Austrian company BRP-Powertrain GmbH (TSX: DOO), and it's capable of a top ground speed of around 100 mph and a top in-air speed of around 125 mph. The speed required to get the vehicle off the ground is approximately 90 mph, which is significantly higher than most small, single-engine planes, even though it is very lightweight.

In the United States, an “ultralight” aircraft has to weigh less than 254 pounds to receive that classification. With such a light weight, these vehicles have a takeoff speed that's about half of the AeroMobil 2.5. Unsurprisingly, the prototype weighs 992 lbs, making it a light sport aircraft (LSA) but not an ultralight.

Its range is approximately 310 miles on land and 430 miles in the air.

Everybody's Dream

Like I said earlier, the dream to fly is so universal that many people chase it.

U.S. firm Terrafugia debuted its own road-legal flying car in the last year, too.

Headed by young aerospace engineer Carl Dietrich, Terrafugia has been showing off and flying its Transition flying car since 2013. It's been called the “first practical flying car.”

It's got a cruise speed of 100 mph and a range of 410 miles in the air.

Terrafugia has a leg up on AeroMobil because the Transition is already “available” on the market. That is to say, you can put a $10,000 deposit down on your own... but it has to be built, and the total bill is $279,000.