# Flying Tesla Roadster

How a Tesla Roadster could use cold\-gas thrusters from compressed air tanks to leap off the ground, and why the push lasts only seconds\.

By Ivan

Topic: Machines

[Open the interactive Jig](https://ask.jig.com/j/vUsysE48CXKi)

## Transcript

### 1. The Roadster that leaps

This low electric sports car is the second\-generation Tesla Roadster, first shown in 2017\. In October 2026 Tesla showed a version that used blasts of air to leap over parked cars\. Let's look inside to see how\.

Most numbers here are Tesla's own claims\. Deliveries are not expected before 2028\.

### 2. Battery and motors

A big battery pack lies flat under the floor\. It sends electricity to electric motors, one for each rear wheel\. Electric motors push hard the instant they start, so the car shoots away without changing gear\.

When the car slows down, the motors can work in reverse as generators and put energy back into the battery\.

### 3. Air in a bottle

Behind the seats sits a tough tank wrapped in carbon fibre, called a COPV\. An electric pump squeezes air into it until the air is packed hundreds of times tighter than the air around us\.

Tesla says the top version carries about 600 litres of squeezed air, which weighs around 250 kg\.

### 4. Push by pushing back

When a valve opens, the squeezed air rushes out of a nozzle\. Throwing air backwards pushes the car forwards, just like a balloon zooming away when you let it go\. Nothing burns, so these are called cold\-gas thrusters\.

This is Newton's third law: every push comes with an equal push back the other way\.

### 5. Ten nozzles

Reports describe ten nozzles on the top version\. Four at the back add speed, two at the nose help it turn, and one at each corner points down at the ground\.

Nozzle positions here follow press reports, not official drawings\.

### 6. Leap\!

To leave the ground, the downward thrusters must push harder than the whole car weighs, which is about two tonnes\. Press the button to fire them and watch the cold air turn into a cloud\.

In the demo the car left a curved ramp and flipped over five parked cars\. Tesla says it jumped about 8 metres\.

### 7. Seconds, not minutes

Squeezed air is a weak fuel, so a full tank lasts only a few seconds of hard pushing\. That is enough for a leap or a launch, but not for flying like a plane\. Spacecraft use the same trick to steer in space\.

Estimate: hovering would use about 33 kg of air every second, so 250 kg would run out in about 7 seconds\.