Using Tesla’s own figures, the flying Roadster carries enough gas to hover for about 7 to 10 seconds. At full thrust, the same tank is empty in about 2 seconds or less. That’s why the October 15 demo looked like a jump, not a flight.
This is our estimate, not a number Tesla has published. We haven’t driven or flown the car. Everything below comes from what Tesla showed on stage and what its engineering chief, Lars Moravy, told Hagerty in an interview after the reveal, with the math shown so you can check it.
How the Roadster gets off the ground
The Roadster has no wings and no propellers. It lifts itself with cold gas thrusters: valves that release very high pressure gas through nozzles. The gas rushes out one way and pushes the car the other way. Satellites and spacecraft use the same idea to steer.
Here is what Tesla has said about the hardware:
- Tanks: two carbon-wrapped pressure vessels holding 600 liters in total, about the volume of three to four bathtubs. Moravy said on stage they hold “about 250 kilos of air,” which is about 550 pounds.
- Pressure: up to 10,000 psi, about 300 times the pressure in a car tire.
- The gas: Tesla’s livestream says air. In the Hagerty interview, Moravy says the tanks hold nitrogen, which makes up most of the air we breathe.
- Thrusters: ten nozzles on the top version. Moravy says the rear thrusters produce over 80 kilonewtons of push, about the same as a single fighter jet engine.
The catch is in the word “cold.” There’s no fuel burning. Once the gas is out, the push is gone, and the thrust fades as the pressure drops, like a balloon that starts to sputter.
The math, from Tesla’s numbers
To hover, the thrusters have to push up with the car’s full weight. Moravy puts the Roadster at “just under 1,700 kilos” (about 3,700 pounds), though he said the final number isn’t set. Holding that up takes about 16,700 newtons of push, nonstop. A newton is the unit engineers use for force; this number is simply the car’s weight, pushed back up.
How long a tank lasts depends on how fast the gas leaves the nozzle. Room-temperature gas from a nozzle like this leaves at roughly 450 to 650 meters per second. That gives:
Hover time = gas mass × exhaust speed ÷ (car weight × gravity). With Tesla’s numbers: 250 kg × 450 to 650 m/s ÷ (1,700 kg × 9.81) ≈ 7 to 10 seconds.
| Scenario | Push needed | Gas used per second | Tank lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hovering in place | about 16.7 kN | about 26 to 37 kg | about 7 to 10 seconds |
| Rear thrusters flat out | over 80 kN | about 125 to 180 kg | about 1.5 to 2 seconds |
Quick hops stretch the tank because the thrusters fire in short bursts, and the car coasts in between. That’s what the demo showed: a launch off a ramp, a flip, a landing.
Two cautions. The 250 kg figure is for the top, ten-thruster version; Tesla hasn’t said whether other versions carry the same tanks. And these are best-case numbers: as the pressure falls, the push falls with it.
What that means in real life
It’s a jump, not a flight. Seconds of lift are enough to clear an obstacle or pull off a stunt. They aren’t enough to travel anywhere.
Refills are slow for now. Hagerty reports that filling all 600 liters currently takes 6 to 7 hours, and that Tesla is working to bring that down to about half an hour. You won’t be doing it at home.
Nobody clearly regulates the flying part yet. The FAA told CBS News the Roadster doesn’t meet its definition of an aircraft. It isn’t clear which agency, if any, would oversee a car that leaves the ground.
What it costs
Tesla is taking reservations for three versions. Production is promised for 2028.
| Version | What you get | Reservation |
|---|---|---|
| Performance | The road car, no thrusters | $50,000 |
| Thrust | Adds rear thrusters, which Tesla uses for acceleration | $250,000 |
| Rocket | All ten thrusters and the full flight system. Tesla says it is not approved for public roads | Invite only |
One more thing to weigh: this Roadster was first shown in November 2017, with production promised for 2020. The date has moved at least six times since, and the first reservation holders paid $50,000, or $250,000 for a Founders Series car, back then.
The version that can actually leave the ground isn’t one you can sign up for. Before you put money down on the Thrust version, ask Tesla what its tanks hold and how long its thrusters can fire. For how the reservation payments work, see our breakdown of the three Roadster versions.
The bottom line
The flying Roadster is real engineering, and the flip is real. But the gas on board buys seconds of lift, refills take hours today, and the version that jumps is invite only. Treat it as a stunt the car can do, not a way to travel.
How we worked this out
This piece is based on research, not hands-on testing. The hardware figures (600 liters, about 250 kg of gas, ten nozzles, over 80 kN) come from Tesla’s October 15 livestream. The car’s weight, the gas type and the refill time come from Hagerty’s interview with Lars Moravy. The hover times are TechCity’s own estimate from those figures, using a typical exhaust speed for room-temperature cold gas thrusters. Prices and versions come from Tesla.
Sources
- Tesla Roadster reveal livestream, October 15, 2026: tanks and air mass at 12:08, thrust at 17:59
- Hagerty, “The FLYING Tesla Roadster explained by the man who engineered it”: weight at 4:27, tank and pressure at 15:31, thrust comparison at 16:03, nitrogen at 18:51, refill time at 20:17
- CBS News: the FAA’s statement that the Roadster doesn’t meet its aircraft definition
- Tesla’s Roadster page: versions, reservation amounts, road approval and the 2028 production target
- Electrek, April 21, 2026: the Roadster’s production timeline since 2017 and the original deposit amounts
