The opening of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo will be filled with pomp and color thanks to a group of Japanese engineers building a full-sized flying car. The project has been supported by Toyota Motor Corp (ADR)(NYSE:TM), which has invested close to $400,000 to enable smooth delivery of the Olympic torch in the opening ceremony of the games.

The building of the car by a company known as Cartivator is a partnership program, which involves up to 30 engineers from the start-up and others from Toyota. The prototype flying car was tested over the weekend by the Cartivator team and records have it that it managed to get it to lift off the ground but just for a few seconds.

Toyota has been surveying a wide range of new tech and transportation preferences

It is not the first time that Toyota is jumping towards such projects. The company has had others, the likes of luxury yachts under its Lexus brand. It is also worth noting that Toyota has its own flying car ambitions, which are reportedly in the very early stages.

Revealing what is likely to be in the pipeline, a company statement outlines, “Within Toyota, we are advancing broad research and development on ways of transportation — including aerial solutions — that can lead to a prosperous society in the future.”

Refining the design is the next step for the new flying car project

Cartivator says that after testing the prototype car, the next thing is to have its design refined. This will be done through the use of the $400,000 invested by Toyota. The goal is to have the car fly with a pilot on board sometime in 2019 and this will be good timing because it will just be before the launch of Tokyo’s 2020 Olympic Games.

While at this Toyota says it is also re-imagining itself after closing out a joint venture with Tesla, which involved co-improvement of electric vehicle technologies. Meanwhile, Toyota’s stock closed at $109.37 witnessing an increase of $0.97 or 0.89%.