World’s first flying car prepares for take-off

austin552 · austin552's Garage

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/engineering/article5489287.ece

Jim Richards · 01-11-2009, 05:52 PM

The "world's first?"...meh

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_car_(aircraft)

slakjaw · 01-11-2009, 05:55 PM

I always thought George Jetson had a hot wife.

ruf-porsche · ruf-porsche's Garage

Wasn't there a flying car in one of the james bonds film? I think it was in the The Man with the Golden Gun.

Jim Richards · 01-11-2009, 06:21 PM

no skool like ol' skool

http://inventorspot.com/articles/experiments_flying_cars_6835

Jim Richards · 01-11-2009, 06:24 PM

Jim Richards · 01-11-2009, 06:26 PM

911Rob · 911Rob's Garage

I'm in and can't wait! Whoo Hoo, can you imagine the possibilities.

onlycafe · 01-11-2009, 08:52 PM

i remember a car-plane on "love that bob" back in the mid fifties.

KNS · 01-12-2009, 06:39 AM

One of the things that these flying car fantasies never mention is that if you buy one of these things you are going to have to get a pilots license. The Feds are NOT going let you share the airspace above without getting certficated and the places where they will be most desired for commuting; L.A. , N.Y. , Chicago, etc, you're are going to have to land at a downtown airport. Kinda defeats the purpose. That's why these things have never "taken off".

The places where these will be most practical is very rural areas. Might as well get a small, light plane.

the · 09:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Richards

no skool like ol' skool

http://inventorspot.com/articles/experiments_flying_cars_6835

The big difference between this new one and all of the old school ones is that the new one is apparently entirely self contained. You drive it as a car, press a button and in 15 seconds (?!?!?) it turns into a plane. Fly around, land it, press a button and it transforms back into a car, you drive away.

If it could really do that, that would be something that could eventually be pretty cool and useable.

The old ones, you had to drag along all the wings, etc. in a trailer, takes tools and a half an hour to put it together. And, if you fly it somewhere, when you land and convert it back to a car, what are you going to do with the wings? You have to find somewhere to store them, etc. a big hassle.

One like this would be pretty practical, even if you had to land at an airport. If you could hit the runway, taxi off, press a button and in 15 seconds hit the highway.

But if these things were affordable and more of them hit the roads/air, I'm sure people would build little landing areas for them.

I think as tech progresses, something like this will eventually happen.

911Rob · 911Rob's Garage

Ha, Ha.... I'm excited about this and I just can't wait!

When I went to school and became an engineer we didn't have computers. My first job as a project manager/estimator; we didn't have a fax machine and our copier was some kind of carbon paper based type. Then when they came out with all this stuff.... computers, fax machines, pagers, cell phones, etc; (alot of stuff!) I was the first to jump on the band wagon and get up to speed with it all. It's not the "how", it never is. Trust me, this is gonna happen.

Last year I bought a plane and now I'm getting my pilots license; when this comes, and it will, I'll be ready to jump (fly) on board. It will be so cool, I can visualize it all now!

My grandpa got his first drivers license in the early 1900's; it was a chauffeurs license, that said it was good for life; Ha. Anyway, nobody knew how to drive a car and you had to have one of these chauffeurs licenses to operate one. They told Ford that it wouldn't work. Why? There were NO ROADS! Look what we have today.

It's NEVER the resources, but always the resourcefulness!

Tim Hancock · 01-12-2009, 10:53 AM

What plane did you end up buying Rob?

The biggest problem I have with flying "cars" is that they have to be built out of very lighweight materials to be able to fly anywhere near efficiently. Airplane designers go to great extremes to remove a few pounds. Adding mechanisms to retract wings, props, etc are going to be heavy which right off the top makes them less efficient compared to similar sized airplanes. The first time the wife hits a pothole or bumps another car in a parking lot, you are going to need extensive expensive "FAA approved" repairs to the delicate weight optimized structure. I truly can't see these things ever becoming mainstream. 250K or so for a car that is not very good at being a car along with an airplane that is not a very good airplane is too much of an oddity for the average Joepilot IMO.

911Rob · 911Rob's Garage

Tim; you're thinking about the "HOW" buddy!

I bought the Cesna with my buddy Mike. He's a pilot and I r to be 1.
Cheers

one day........ you'll see it in your lifetime!

poorsche930 · 01-12-2009, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slakjaw

I always thought George Jetson had a hot wife.

It was her skirt that did it for me.

Tim Hancock · 01-12-2009, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 911Rob

Tim; you're thinking about the "HOW" buddy!

I bought the Cesna with my buddy Mike. He's a pilot and I r to be 1.
Cheers

one day........ you'll see it in your lifetime!

Congrats on the Cessna Rob. I don't remember, was it a 182?

I disagree with you on the flying car however..... It has already been done several times, but it will never be feasible on a grand scale (much like current solar technology).

m21sniper · 01-12-2009, 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by austin552

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/engineering/article5489287.ece

Wow, that looks practical.

sailchef · sailchef's Garage

As a little kid in the early 60's I remember seeing the Aerocar. It was towing its wings behind it on a trailor waiting at a traffic light, just down the road from Sikorsky Aircraft in Stratford, Conn.

GWN7 · 01-12-2009, 09:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ruf-porsche

Wasn't there a flying car in one of the james bonds film? I think it was in the The Man with the Golden Gun.

It was a 1974 Matador. With the flight tail unit, the complete machine was 9.15 metres (30 ft) long, 12.80 metres (42 ft) wide, and 3.08 metres (10 ft) high and the "flying AMC Matador" was exhibited at auto shows; however, it could only make a 500-metre (1,640 ft) flight so for the film's aerial sequences it was replaced by a meter-long (39-inch) remote controlled model.

sammyg2 · 01-13-2009, 05:37 AM

A car and a plane are two different types of machines with two completely different types of requirements. Cars need to be sturdy and solid, planes need to be as light as possible. That makes them fragile.
Trying to make one machine that can do both will result in a machine that can do neither well.

This lesson was learned many times in the past, but some people are too dumb to realize that and keep trying to make a bad idea work.

My bet is that they are more interested in attracting foolish investors than actually building the machine.