Tesla's 'flying' Roadster: what was real, what wasn't, and will it come to the UK?

Tesla has finally revealed its second-generation Roadster, and it did so by flipping it through the air. At SpaceX’s test site in McGregor, Texas, on the night of 15 October 2026, an uncrewed prototype climbed a curved ramp, fired cold-gas thrusters, flipped and landed on its wheels, then jumped over a line of cars and a lorry. “Turns out the future does have flying cars,” Elon Musk told the crowd, according to a detailed account by Within Nigeria.

Tesla also claimed 0 to 60mph in 0.81 seconds, which would make the Roadster by far the fastest-accelerating car ever. It is a remarkable piece of theatre. It is also a car with no price, no confirmed UK plans, no independent performance data and a production date of 2028, nine years after it was first promised. Here is what was real, what was not, and what it means for UK buyers.

What happened at the reveal?

Tesla showed the Roadster in two stunts at SpaceX’s Rocket Test and Development Center. The event had been due on 1 October but was called off on 28 September because it could only be held outdoors and the weather was uncertain.

In the first stunt, the Roadster drove up a giant curved ramp, held to the surface by a fan-powered suction system until it was fully upside down. It then fired its thrusters, flipped in mid-air and landed. In the second, it launched over a line of cars and a lorry, flipped and touched down on the far side.

Two details matter if you watched the footage. The car was an uncrewed, remotely operated prototype. And before the longer second jump, the team put a “Starman” mannequin in the driver’s seat, a nod to the original Roadster that SpaceX sent into space in 2018.

Musk joked that he needed a live audience “to prove that it’s not AI”.

Can the Tesla Roadster really fly?

No, not as most people understand flying. The Roadster can leap and flip for a few seconds on compressed air. That makes it closer to a stunt vehicle than an aircraft, and it would not satisfy any aviation regulator. Musk himself said on stage that the car is “not necessarily” a safety-optimised vehicle.

The thrusters use compressed air stored in a high-pressure tank, not burning fuel. According to Tesla, they can produce four to five times the force the tyres can, which is why they boost acceleration so dramatically. Full-power thrust lasts only a few seconds.

Refilling the tank is the practical problem. Autoblog, via AOL, reports that the single carbon-overwrapped pressure vessel takes about six hours to refill, and that Tesla is working to cut that to half an hour. Musk has also floated the idea of Tesla-run looped tracks where owners could use the car’s party tricks, which suggests Tesla expects most of them to happen away from public roads.

How fast is it really?

Tesla’s headline claim is 0 to 60mph in 0.81 seconds. At the event, Tesla first quoted one second, then showed a video of the car doing the run in 0.81. The run was cut short because there was little room on the pad. The Express reports that the invite-only Rocket version, with six extra thruster nozzles, targets 0.59 seconds.

For comparison:

Car	0-60mph	Status
Tesla Roadster Rocket	0.59 seconds (target)	Tesla claim, not verified
Tesla Roadster Thrust	0.81 seconds	Tesla’s own timing at the reveal
McMurtry Spéirling Pure	1.55 seconds	Cited by the Express as the current quickest
Rimac Nevera R	1.66 seconds	Verified production-car record

The 0.81-second run was timed by Tesla. As of 16 October, no outside body had verified the acceleration or top speed, and Tesla warned that the production car’s specs could change. Tesla’s current top-speed claim is 230mph, while Musk talked about eventually reaching around half the speed of sound and, according to Autoblog, 330mph.

The key point is that the acceleration comes from the thrusters, not the electric motors. Without thrust, the Roadster is still likely to be very quick, but the record-breaking figures depend on the compressed-air system.

What versions will there be?

Tesla is offering three versions, and only one is the car that flew in the demonstration:

• Performance. The version most buyers could realistically get. It has no thrusters at all.
• Thrust. Tesla’s retail site calls it “limited”. This is the version needed for the 0.81-second time.
• Rocket. Invite-only, with a 10-thruster setup and the 0.59-second target.

Tesla did not give battery capacity or power figures. The car also uses active aerodynamics and underfloor fans that Tesla says allow cornering at up to 2G, and a Track Mode that lowers the car for maximum downforce.

How much does it cost?

Tesla has not announced a price. What it has published are reservation payments that hold a place in the queue:

• Deposits range from $50,000 to $250,000, which the Express converts to about £37,500 and £187,400.
• For the Performance version, buyers pay $5,000 up front and $45,000 within 10 days.
• When Tesla first showed the prototype in 2017, the base price was $200,000.

Tesla says final prices will come when reservation holders are invited to configure a car. In other words, you are paying tens of thousands of pounds for the right to see a price later.

Why has it taken so long?

The Roadster has been delayed repeatedly. It was first shown as a prototype in November 2017, with production due in 2020. A demonstration planned for the end of 2025 slipped to April 2026, then late April, then late May or June, then August or later, while SpaceX worked on the thruster system. Production is now due in Texas from 2028, about eight years behind the original plan.

The thruster idea itself goes back years. In June 2020, Musk tweeted that a “SpaceX option package” with 10 small thrusters would improve acceleration and might even let a Tesla fly. A former Tesla president, Jon McNeill, has said the idea started in a 2016 brainstorming session.

Will the Tesla Roadster come to the UK?

Tesla has not said. There is no confirmed right-hand-drive version, no UK price and no UK order book. There are three reasons UK buyers should be cautious:

1. Road legality. It is unclear whether the thruster versions will be street legal anywhere. A car that fires high-pressure gas from its rear would face extra scrutiny under UK vehicle approval rules, which cover things like external projections, noise and safety.
2. Right-hand drive. Low-volume hypercars are not always built in right-hand drive. The first-generation Roadster was sold in the UK in right-hand drive, but that is no guarantee for the new car.
3. Timing. Tesla’s own history suggests caution about 2028. Even if production starts on time, UK deliveries could come later.

If you are a Tesla fan in the UK who wants something fast now, the Model 3 Performance is already one of the quickest cars on sale for the money. Our Tesla Model Y and Model 3 UK prices for October 2026 cover what you can buy today.

Why does the Roadster matter if most people will never buy one?

Because it shows where Tesla is spending its attention. The reveal fed speculation about a merger between Tesla and SpaceX, which Musk has since said he is considering, as we cover in our report on the Tesla-SpaceX merger talk. It also showed Tesla using SpaceX hardware and parts borrowed from its Optimus robot programme.

Critics argue that the Roadster is mainly a marketing exercise. Autoblog called it potentially “one of the marketing triumphs of a generation” whether or not it reaches production. Supporters say it is a halo car that keeps Tesla in the headlines at a time when its mainstream models face strong competition from Chinese brands.

For UK drivers, the more useful Tesla news is about the cars it actually sells here: prices, Supercharger access and software features. The Roadster is a spectacle. Treat its numbers as claims until someone independent puts it on a timing strip.

Are other companies doing the same?

Yes. BYD has shown a car that can briefly hop over potholes, and vacuum cleaner maker Dreame has teased a thruster-assisted hypercar claiming 0-60mph in 0.99 seconds, due in 2027.

None has yet been independently tested, so treat all such acceleration figures as manufacturer claims until they are verified.

We will update this story if Tesla confirms UK plans or right-hand drive.

Our view

The flying Roadster is the most attention-grabbing car reveal in years, and it worked: everyone is talking about Tesla again. But the reveal answered almost none of the questions a buyer would ask. There is no price, no battery size, no independent test, no confirmed road legality and no UK plan. Until those arrive, we would not put down a deposit, however exciting the footage looks.