The Flying Tesla: Roadster Jumps a Semi on Rocket Thrusters

On Thursday night, at SpaceX's rocket test site in McGregor, Texas, Tesla unveiled the new Roadster the only way it could: with a stunt show.

The electric supercar drove up a tall curved ramp — and kept driving as the ramp curled overhead, held to the surface by an underbody fan system generating enough suction to hold the car upside down. Then it launched off the top, and mid-air, fired cold-gas thrusters developed with SpaceX to roll itself upright, hover, and land.

Then came the headline act. The Roadster jumped clean over Tesla's entire vehicle lineup — Model 3, Model Y, Cybertruck, Cybercab, and the Semi — twisting through the air before landing. Near the end of the show came one more trick: a full mid-air flip — Tesla calls it a "kickflip" — before hovering back down on its thrusters.

The numbers Tesla claims are as wild as the stunts: 0–60 mph in 0.81 seconds, a top speed over 230 mph. Ten thruster nozzles fed by 600 liters of rechargeable compressed air do the lifting. And on the event screen, Tesla put the suction downforce at 4,700 kg — a figure Electrek calls aggressive for a car likely under 2,000 kg. Tesla plans three versions — a Performance model, a Thrust version, and an invite-only Rocket variant with full aerial capability — with production targeted for 2028.

Whether every promised feature reaches public roads is an open question. But for one night in Texas, the flying car stopped being science fiction.

(Video: Tesla)