| schema:text
| - Fact Check: Grounded for being a Muslim? The controversy around Asia's first hybrid flying car
AFWA has found that the viral claim is misleading. The man in the eye of the storm Shoaib himself confirmed to AFWA that the matter has been unnecessarily given a communal twist.
Listen to Story
India Today Fact Check
Mohammad Furqan Shoaib is one of the members of the team which is developing Asia’s first hybrid flying car.
A prototype of Asia’s first hybrid flying car was recently unveiled at the world's largest Helitech Expo-Excel in London. Chennai-based startup company ‘Vinata Aeromobility’ is developing this car.
The design model of the car was also showcased before Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia last month.
Soon after, several netizens began claiming that Mohammad Furqan Shoaib, the Chief Technology Officer of Vinata Aeromobility - the company that developed it - was deprived of his due credit just because he is a Muslim. It is being claimed that Shoaib is the person who ‘created’ Asia’s first hybrid flying car.
India Today Anti-Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the viral claim is misleading. The man in the eye of the storm Shoaib himself confirmed to AFWA that the matter has been unnecessarily given a communal twist. Mohammad Furqan Shoaib is just one of the members of the team which is developing the hybrid flying car. He has certainly not developed it single-handedly.
AFWA spoke to company founder Yogesh Ramanathan about the controversy. He clarified that Shoaib had joined Vinata Aeromobility only in February this year whereas the company was already working on the flying car concept since 2018.
It is important to note that the hybrid flying car has not been ‘created’ or ‘invented’ in India. The framework of the technology has been available for quite some time. Several companies across the world have been working to refine and further develop this technology so that flying cars could become a reality. Vinata Aeromobility is also optimizing the pre-available technology for designing cars. As of now, the company has just unveiled the prototype of its hybrid flying car. It is expected to be ready for a flight test by 2023.
A website named ‘India Tomorrow’ also amplified this misinformation that Shoaib is being denied credit because he is a Muslim.
The launch of Vinata Aeromobility’s prototype was widely covered by the media. In most reports, only the company name was mentioned.
AFWA PROBE
Yogesh Ramanathan, the CEO of Vinata Aeromobility told AFWA that Mohammad Furqan Shoaib is indeed a part of the team developing the hybrid flying car. But the credit goes to the entire team and not Shoaib alone. While Shoaib is currently working as the CTO in this team, the job of other experts like the industrial designer, CAD engineer, and tech consultants is equally significant.
According to Yogesh, “Shoaib is a talented boy and so far, he has handled his part well. But to say that he has created or invented the hybrid flying car would be technically wrong.”
The CEO shared Shoaib’s appointment letter with us which shows that he had in fact just completed his probation period in the company in August this year.
HOW THE CONTROVERSY ERUPTED
Shoaib told us that the controversy began after he tweeted about this concept car, thanking his company and Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.
"After the matter took a communal turn, I decided to delete my Twitter account," he said. The screenshot of Shoaib’s tweet can be seen below.
THE CONCEPT OF A FLYING CAR IS QUITE OLD
Waldo Dean Waterman from California, US was the first person who successfully created a model of a simple flying car way back in 1937.
Since then, the technology used in flying cars has come a long way. SD-03, a manned flying car, successfully took a test flight in Japan in August 2020.
US-based aircraft company Bell is also developing a hybrid flying car which would be displayed at an exhibition ‘Futures’ this November.
Please share it on our at 73 7000 7000
You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)