Flying car
A flying car or roadable aircraft is a type of vehicle which can function both as a road vehicle and as an aircraft. The term "flying car" includes vehicles that are classified as motorcycles when operated on public roads. It is also sometimes used to include hovercars and/or VTOL personal air vehicles. Since the early 20th century, many prototypes have been built, employing a variety of flight technologies. Most have been designed to take off and land conventionally using a runway. Although VTOL projects are increasing, none has yet been produced in significant quantities.
Their appearance is often predicted by futurologists, and many concept designs have been promoted. Their failure to become a practical reality has led to the catchphrase "Where's my flying car?", as a paradigm for the failure of predicted technologies to appear. Flying cars are also a popular theme in fantasy and science fiction stories.
History
Early 20th century
In 1901 German immigrant to the U.S. Gustave Whitehead claimed to have flown a powered aircraft, described as able to propel itself along roads to the site of the flying experiment. Consensus among historians is that Whitehead's no. 21 did not achieve sustained self-powered flight.Aircraft designer Glenn Curtiss built his Autoplane in 1917. It had a pusher propeller for flight, with removable flight surfaces including a triplane wing, canard foreplane and twin tails. It was able to hop, but not fly.
In 1935, Constantinos Vlachos built a prototype of a 'tri-phibian' vehicle with a circular wing, but it caught fire after the engine exploded while he was demonstrating it in Washington, D.C. Vlachos was badly injured and spent several months in hospital. The machine is most notable for a newsreel that captured the incident.
The Autogiro Company of America AC-35 was a prototype roadable autogyro, flown on 26 March 1936 by test pilot James G. Ray. Forward thrust was initially provided by twin counter-rotating propellers for thrust, later replaced with a single propeller. On 26 October 1936, the aircraft was converted to roadable configuration. Ray drove it to the main entrance of the Commerce Building, Washington, D.C., where it was accepted by John H. Geisse, chief of the Aeronautics Branch. Although it had been successfully tested, it did not enter production.
The first fixed wing roadable aircraft to fly was built by Waldo Waterman. Waterman had been associated with Glenn Curtiss when pioneering amphibious aircraft at North Island on San Diego Bay in the 1910s. On 21 February 1937, Waterman's Arrowbile first took to the air.
The Arrowbile was a development of Waterman's tailless aircraft, the Whatsit. It had a wingspan of and a length of. On the ground and in the air it was powered by a Studebaker engine. It could fly at and drive at.
In 1942, the British army built the Hafner Rotabuggy, an experimental roadable autogyro that was developed with the intention of air-dropping off-road vehicles. In developed form the Rotabuggy achieved a flight speed of. However, the introduction of gliders that could carry vehicles led to the project's cancellation.
Late 20th century
Although several designs have flown, none have enjoyed commercial success, and those that have flown are not widely known by the general public. The most successful example, in that several were made and one is still flying, is the 1949 Taylor Aerocar.In 1946, the Fulton FA-2 Airphibian was an American-made flying car designed by Robert Edison Fulton Jr., it was an aluminum-bodied car, built with independent suspension, aircraft-sized wheels, and a six-cylinder 165 hp engine. The fabric wings were easily attached to the fuselage, converting the car into a plane. Four prototypes were built. Charles Lindbergh flew it in 1950 and, although it was not a commercial success, it is now in the Smithsonian.
File:Aerocar at EAA.jpg|thumb|1949 Aerocar with wings folded, at the EAA AirVenture Museum
The Aerocar, designed and built by Molt Taylor, made a successful flight in December 1949, and in following years versions underwent a series of road and flying tests. Chuck Berry featured the concept in his 1956 song "You Can't Catch Me", and in December 1956 the Civil Aviation Authority approved the design for mass production, but despite wide publicity and an improved version produced in 1989, Taylor did not succeed in getting the flying car into production. In total, six Aerocars were built. It is considered to be one of the first practical flying cars.
One notable design was Henry Smolinski's Mizar, made by mating the rear end of a Cessna Skymaster with a Ford Pinto, but it disintegrated during test flights killing Smolinski and the pilot.
Project Prodigal was a British Army concept in the late 1950s early 1960s for a "Jumping Jeep" to overcome obstacles on the battlefield with entrants were BAC Boulton Paul, Bristol Siddeley, Folland, Handley Page Saunders Roe, Short Brothers Vickers-Armstrongs and Westland.
Moller began developing VTOL craft in the late 1960s, but no Moller vehicle has ever achieved free flight out of ground effect. The Moller Skycar M400 was a project for a personal VTOL aircraft which is powered by four pairs of in-tandem Wankel rotary engines. The proposed Autovolantor model had an all-electric version powered by Altairnano batteries. The company has been dormant since 2015.
In the mid-1980s, former Boeing engineer Fred Barker founded Flight Innovations Inc. and began the development of the Sky Commuter, a small duct fans-based VTOL aircraft. It was a compact, two-passenger and was made primarily of composite materials. In 2008, the remaining prototype was sold for £86k on eBay.
21st century
In 2009 the U.S., the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency initiated the $65 million Transformer program to develop a four-person roadable aircraft by 2015. The vehicle was to have had VTOL capability and a range. AAI Corporation and Lockheed Martin were awarded contracts. The program was cancelled in 2013.The Parajet Skycar utilises a paramotor for propulsion and a parafoil for lift. The main body consists of a modified dune buggy. It has a top speed of and a maximum range of in flight. On the ground it has a top speed of and a maximum range of. Parajet flew and drove its prototype from London to Timbuktu in January 2009.
The Maverick Flying Dune Buggy was designed by the Indigenous People's Technology and Education Center of Florida as an off-road vehicle that could unfurl an advanced parachute and then travel by air over impassable terrain when roadways were no longer usable. The 'Maverick' vehicle is powered by a engine that can also drive a five-bladed pusher propeller. It was initially conceived in order to help minister to remote Amazon rainforest communities, but will also be marketed for visual pipeline inspection and other similar activities in desolate areas or difficult terrain.
The Plane Driven PD-1 Roadable Glastar is a modification to the Glastar Sportsman GS-2 to make a practical roadable aircraft. The approach is novel in that it uses a mostly stock aircraft with a modified landing gear "pod" that carries the engine for road propulsion. The wings fold along the side, and the main landing gear and engine pod slide aft in driving configuration to compensate for the rearward center of gravity with the wings folded, and provide additional stability for road travel.
The Super Sky Cycle was an American homebuilt roadable gyroplane designed and manufactured by The Butterfly Aircraft LLC. It is a registered motorcycle.
At the 2014 Pioneers Festival at Wien AeroMobil presented their version 3.0 of their flying car. The prototype was conceived as a vehicle that can be converted from an automobile to an aircraft. The version 2.5 proof-of-concept took 20 years to develop and first flew in 2013. CEO Juraj Vaculik said that the company planned to move flying cars to market: "the plan is that in 2017 we'll be able to announce ... the first flying roadster." In 2016, AeroMobil was test-flying a prototype that obtained Slovak ultralight certification. When the final product will be available or how much it will cost is not yet specified. In 2018, it unveiled a concept that resembled a flying sportscar with VTOL capability.
The Aeromobil 2.5 has folding wings and a Rotax 912 engine. It can travel at with a range of, and flew for the first time in 2013. On 29 October 2014, Slovak startup AeroMobil s.r.o. unveiled AeroMobil 3.0
at Vienna Pioneers Festival.
Klein Vision in Slovakia have developed a prototype AirCar, which drives like a sports car and for flight has a pusher propeller with twin tailbooms, and foldout wings. In June 2021, the prototype carried out a 35-minute flight between airports. It was type certified as an aircraft in January 2022.
The Terrafugia Transition is a roadable aircraft intended to be classed as a Personal Air Vehicle. It can fold its wings in 30 seconds and drive the front wheels, enabling it to operate both as a traditional road vehicle and as a general aviation aeroplane with a range of. An operational prototype was displayed at Oshkosh in 2008 and its first flight took place on 2009-03-05. It will carry two people plus luggage and its Rotax 912S engine operates on premium unleaded gas. It was approved by the FAA in June 2010.
The production-ready single-engine, roadable PAL-V Liberty autogyro, or gyrocopter, debuted at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2018, then became the first flying car in production, and was set to launch in 2020, with full production scheduled for 2021 in Gujarat, India. The PAL-V ONE is a hybrid of a gyrocopter with a leaning 3-wheel motorcycle. It has two seats and a 160 kW flight certified gasoline engine. It has a top speed of on land and in air, and weighs max.
On 15 April 2021, Los Altos, California, became home to the world's first consumer flying car showroom. However, as yet there are no certified flying cars in production.
In 2023 Doroni Aerospace earned an official FAA Airworthiness Certification. It is powered by ten independent propulsion systems. The company claimed a top speed of 140 mph and a 60-mile range. It includes two electric motors with patented ducted propellers. The machine is 23 ft long and 14 ft wide.