The future has finally caught up with the DeLorean. And this time, it’s leaving the road behind.

For decades, the DeLorean has been the car that made us dream about the future. Stainless steel, gullwing doors and a starring role in Back to the Future gave it a place in motoring folklore.

Now, DeLorean Motor Company is taking that futuristic reputation rather more literally. It’s going racing in the sky.

Announced at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, the company is joining the Airspeeder International Series as constructor of the United States team.

The DeLorean Airspeeder Team will make its competitive debut when the 2026–27 season kicks off in November. And no, you won’t need roads. Or wheels, for that matter.

The series pits electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft against one another on electronically defined courses, with races taking place in glorious three-dimensional space. Think motorsport, but with considerably more opportunities to get airborne.

For its debut season, DeLorean will race the Airspeeder Mk3C, bringing its own design identity to the aircraft. The pilots, final design details and sporting programme are still under wraps.

Things get more interesting in 2027–28, when DeLorean plans to collaborate with American university engineering teams, including those at UC Berkeley and Georgia Tech, on the next-generation racing aircraft.

It’s a bold move for a brand whose greatest achievement remains convincing an entire generation that its car could travel through time. Now it’s betting that electric flight could be the next big thing.

Whether this leads to flying cars on every driveway remains to be seen. But if anyone can make the future look spectacular, it’s DeLorean.

Roads? Where we’re going, we might not need them.