DeLorean Signs Up for Flying Car Racing Without Showing a Flying Car, a Pilot or a Race Date

DeLorean Motor Company is now a flying car constructor, according to DeLorean Motor Company. It announced on October 13 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 in San Francisco that it will enter the Airspeeder International Series, an electric flying car racing series, as constructor of the United States team. The squad is called the DeLorean Airspeeder Team and is due to debut when the 2026–27 season opens in November.

The announcement, distributed with a set of press images, calls DeLorean the first American constructor in flying car racing. It gives no date or venue for that November opener.

The aircraft design, pilot line-up and sporting program will be revealed "ahead of the season opener," the release says. Today the team has no named pilot and no shown aircraft. It does not say how many teams are on the grid. It refers to national teams "from around the world" without naming one, and the team's boilerplate lists "technology partners" without naming any. There is no budget, sponsor or funding source anywhere in the text.

The company description at the bottom talks about the DeLorean brand's legacy and does not mention a product the company currently builds.

In this series, national teams fly electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft through electronically defined courses in three dimensions instead of lapping a circuit. For its first season the DeLorean team will fly the Airspeeder Mk3C, with DeLorean "leading its design identity." The release never defines that phrase, and it does not say who builds, owns or maintains the aircraft.

The aircraft DeLorean designs for itself arrives a season later. The 2027–28 DeLorean Airspeeder is to be developed with student engineering teams at US universities, a list that names the University of California, UC Berkeley and Georgia Tech in one sentence without saying how many partners that is, which campuses are involved or what the students will be asked to do.

Chief Brand Officer Cameron Wynne said "People have pictured a DeLorean in the sky for forty years." The only DeLorean that has flown so far is the one in the Back to the Future films. Airspeeder founder and CEO Matt Pearson called DeLorean the original flying car brand.

Wynne's practical case is regulatory. DeLorean wants to help shape the safety and compliance frameworks that flying vehicles will need, and he described widespread use as still over the horizon. Plenty of programs in this space never leave the ground: Volkswagen's V.MO ended in 2024 after five years without carrying a paying passenger, as we covered .

Airspeeder and DeLorean say they will share more about the constructor relationship "in the coming months." The aircraft, pilots and sporting program are due before the November opener.

Does leading the design identity of someone else's aircraft earn DeLorean the title of constructor?

Sources: DeLorean Motor Company and Airspeeder announcement, October 13, 2026, via Newspress . Images: DeLorean Motor Company / Airspeeder press materials, editorial use only.