All thorough my childhood and adolescence I was a keen fan of all sorts of science magazines including Scientific American (the Amateur Scientist was my favorite SciAm column because it showed how to build things), a subscription magazine from NASA’s Science Service, Asimov’s sci-fi journal, and yes even Popular Science and occasionally Popular Mechanics since my dad liked it.
I lost track of how many times the world has been promised a flying car in those magazines. It seemed like we’d all have a “chicken in every pot” and a flying car in every garage. I’ve been waiting for years decades and there have been lots of false starts and outright frauds. Where the heck is my flying car?
So it was with some amusement that I read this article in the London Time Online. It appears one is being readied for market, we’ll see. I wonder if the ELT on it automatically dials a selection of liability claims attorneys? Even if I had $200k to blow on it, given how regulated we are now, the only place you can fly it “off the road” is Alaska.
World’s first flying car prepares for take-off
Mark Harris
Is it a car? Is it a plane? Actually it’s both. The first flying automobile, equally at home in the sky or on the road, is scheduled to take to the air next month.
If it survives its first test flight, the Terrafugia Transition, which can transform itself from a two-seater road car to a plane in 15 seconds, is expected to land in showrooms in about 18 months’ time.
Its manufacturer says it is easy to keep and run since it uses normal unleaded fuel and will fit into a garage.
Carl Dietrich, who runs the Massachusetts-based Terrafugia, said: “This is the first really integrated design where the wings fold up automatically and all the parts are in one vehicle.”
The Transition, developed by former Nasa engineers, is powered by the same 100bhp engine on the ground and in the air.
Terrafugia claims it will be able to fly up to 500 miles on a single tank of petrol at a cruising speed of 115mph. Up to now, however, it has been tested only on roads at up to 90mph.
Dietrich said he had already received 40 orders, despite an expected retail price of $200,000 (£132,000).
“For an airplane that’s very reasonable, but for a car that’s very much at the high end,” he conceded.
There are still one or two drawbacks. Getting insurance may be a little tricky and finding somewhere to take off may not be straightforward: the only place in the US in which it is legal to take off from a road is Alaska.
Dietrich is optimistic. He said: “In the long term we have the potential to make air travel practical for individuals at a price that would meet or beat driving, with huge time savings.”
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If this really takes off…can you say Air Traffic Control and Drunk Driving? =)
There have been previous versions of a flying car, seen occasionally at car shows.
http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/your_garage/cars/6723.shtml
Does anyone really believe this is a good idea? My first thought, living near a major airport is, given the amount of delusions of grandeaur(spelling?) there is on the road, how many incidents would we see near airports with morons driving/flying into the path of commercial airliners? I doubt these morons would heed to rules and regulations, given they already don’t on a normal road! In my opinion, for average Joe, this flying car is a bad idea, though I am sure there could be positive uses for a vehicle like this, such as in the australian outback etc.
I haven’t been waiting as long as Anthony, but I think the Jetsons spoiled these claims for a lot of us.
Now how fast would a flying car that close to St Mary Axe be shot down, one wonders…
Maybe for the American leaflet, they can photoshop one right next to the Freedom Tower.
Is this valuable information discovered through in-depth reporting by experienced journalists with knowledge of the aviation industry?
I can’t wait to see the London taxi version. Loop the loop with a turning circle of 15 feet. Soooper!
I want the Moller skycar to work. Not much car, but VTOL and compact. Or maybe the 30 minute capable jetpack? http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10548443
The problem isn’t technological as far as the flying vehicle is concerned, it’s safety and control. There’s no current way to set out “skylanes” so that people will know where they’re supposed to fly. There’s also the problem of system failure. If your car engine stalls, you just roll to a halt. If your sky car engine fails, you plummet to your death, unless they add ejection seats, which would make them much more expensive.
No, I don’t think it will happen until there can be a completely computer-controlled system, so essentially humans won’t be flying the planes, the planes will simply be flying automated taxis.
Years back, someone made a car that was a boat as well. It didn’t do well in either function. This looks to be the same, won’t fly or drive. FAA approval may be a long time coming. As long as no one near me has one, I won’t mind.
How about a car that lasts a long time, hardly ever breaks, and is economical? (at the risk of getting rocks thrown at me, I would probably call it a ….. Honda.)
I believe that in Texas you can take off and land on roads designated ranch roads, farm to market, etc – essentially rural roads. These exceptionas are put in place for the benefit of crop dusters and other agricultural uses. You are required to have a flagman to block traffic, though, so it is somewhat constrained. I would think an ‘automatic flagman’ could be developed easily enough.
That said, the regulatory environment is quickly becoming a greater challenge to advancement than the technical challenges.
Of course this is a no-go idea. A car-boat is much easier to produce, would appeal to many more people, but has never gotten past the novelty stage. A car-plane has no chance of being a serious product.
How about we ask John Denver if this is a good idea.
I too have been not so patiently waiting for all the flying cars and jet packs promised me in the pages of magazines since I was a wee lad. But, think about it, most cell phone addicted, attention deficit boobs out there on the highways and byways aren’t competent to operate a vehicle that has 4 degrees of freedom, let alone 6.
I thought the James Bond gyro-copter (Little Betty?) came pretty close way back in ~1965 — it could even be driven down a road w/the copter blades feathered.
Last month you could have had one eBay for only $3,500,000!
Aerocar N103D Flying Plane Car Single Engine Auto Fly
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200280604815
Flying Aerocar Auction Shows the Future Comes From 1956
http://gizmodo.com/5100010/flying-aerocar-auction-shows-the-future-comes-from-1956
I don’t know about anyone else but I am still holding out for a private spaceship!
Mike
There might be some shenanigans going on in the “Best Science” voting, same as last year.
Please take the time to vote here: click
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Paul Shanahan (07:37:32) : “Does anyone really believe this is a good idea? My first thought, living near a major airport is, given the amount of delusions of grandeaur(spelling?) there is on the road, how many incidents would we see near airports with morons driving/flying into the path of commercial airliners?”
Ditto; I’m living close to the Heathrow flightpath, and the thought of idiots buzzing about over the rooftops in flying cars and playing chicken with giant Boeings and Airbuses is… not conducive to peace and relaxation.
Also, urban areas would start to resemble planet Coruscant in the Star Wars movies. How annoying would that be.
The Best Website voting page gives me network timeout error almost every time. Sometimes it loads, but there’s no voting form. Trying to reload sometimes takes me directly to the voting results and that’s the end of it for the day. I suspect they’ve been hacked, but who knows?
I remember the “Amphicar” of a long time ago (early 60’s?). I saw an article 6 years ago about a guy who still runs his on land and small bodies of water. The price wasn’t bad, and I’ve actually seen one on the road. But it didn’t catch on.
A flying car is a very blonde idea. A car has to be designed for stresses that a plane never sees, as when cornering at 65 mph, braking, crash-testing, etc. The added steel to handle those stresses is dead weight for a plane, seriously reducing its air-worthiness. Not to mention the problem of having over your head 100,000 yutzes who can barely drive a car. Affording a plane and flying one are two very different things. Doctors, I’ve heard, have the worst average flying safety record: too many $$, not enough skill.
I think it was mentioned above but Bob Cummings had one in the late 50’s
http://hubpages.com/hub/Is_There_a_Flying_Car_In_Your_Future
Except for the Schwimmwagen.
I don’t car about flying cars, I can’t even get past the mountain flying section of my MS Flight Simulator.
But your reference to Scientific American caught my eye, as I too was very keen on it until I realised it was marching in lock-step with the environmental movement.
SA purports to be a mag for intelligent people, yet it’s treatment of Lomborg was scandalous, scarcely intelligent and it should not be forgotten.
It must be good!
A Massachusetts firm yet it is flying past the Gherkin building in the City of London!
Ford produced the GPA, the Jeep’s equivalent of the Kubelwagen’s Scwimmwagen!
I suppose that the DUKW’s too big to qualify, being truck-based.
I’ve not checked the links to the other flying cars, but I’m sure there was an inflatable one too!
30 St Mary Axe seems to have a magnetic attraction for such vehicles.
http://www.skycarexpedition.com/images/img_07.jpg
http://www.skycarexpedition.com/about_skycar.php