Tesla's Innovative Air-Based Landing System

This Tesla is upside down, 20 meters up,

and it's not falling. Then it lets go, flips in

midair, and lands on its wheels. No human is inside.

How? Two tricks, and both are just air.

First, the upside down part. Right now, air presses on you

with about 10 tons on every square meter.

Under the car, fans suck that air out, and seals stop it from

sneaking back in. With less air below, the air outside

pins the car to the ramp like a vacuum cleaner stuck to your hand.

Tesla says that grip can reach twice the car's weight,

enough to hold it upside down. Now the landing.

Off the ramp, the suction is gone, so air does the opposite job.

Hidden inside are two carbon fiber tanks with about

250 kilos of squeezed air feeding 10

nozzles, four at the back, the rest around the car.

Think of a balloon you let go. Air rushes out one way, the

balloon flies the other. Puff air from one side and the

car spins upright. Puff the other side and the spin stops.

Jets slow the fall and it lands safely.

A hop, not a flight. Blast air out the back and it

shoots forward. Tesla says the rocket version will hit 60

miles per hour in under 0.59 seconds.

SpaceX uses the same trick to flip its rockets in the sky.

So it's not magic. It's air pulled out to stick,

pushed out to land.