The AirCar

[RoadDukie]

Just happened on this article concerning what appears to be a successful, genuine, flying car. The creator is out of Slovakia.

There is a pretty good (albeit promotional) video within the article.

First flight: The AirCar — General Aviation News

generalaviationnews.com

 

[skyactiv]

Does it have a 5 MPH rear bumper?

 

[ZeeOSix]

Pretty cool concept. Wonder what the cost will be ... $300K+ perhaps.

R&D – Klein Vision

 

[BusyLittleShop]

Since 1917 pioneering designers began chasing the dream of a flying car.
There are nearly 80 patents on file at the United States Patent and
Trademark Office for various kinds of flying cars. Some of these have
actually flown. Most have not. And all have come up short of reaching
the goal of the mass-produced flying car because either you have a road
worthy car thats too heavy to fly well or a worthy flying machine thats not
DOT road worthy... we don't have both... one is always inverses proportional
to the other...

Behold best of flying cars that distinguished themselves from the pack:

1917 Autoplane by Glenn Curtiss

1937 Arrowbile by Waldo Waterman

1947 Airphibian by Robert Fulton

1950 ConvAirCar by Consolidated Vultee

1960 Aerocar by Moulton "Molt" Taylor
"Molt" Taylor created perhaps the most well-known and most successful
flying car to date. The Aerocar was designed to drive, fly and then
drive again without interruption. Taylor covered his car with a
fiberglass shell. A 10-foot-long (3-meter) drive shaft connected the
engine to a pusher propeller. It cruised at 120 mph (193 kph) in the
air and was the second and last roadable aircraft to receive FAA
approval. In 1970, Ford Motor Co. even considered marketing the
vehicle, but the decade's oil crisis dashed those plans

 

[Astro14]

Looks cool, doubt it's going to work.

110 years of failed attempts suggest the underlying problem: What makes a good airplane makes a lousy car, and vice-versa.

 

[PimTac]

I would like to see someone invent a hover type car. It would float above the pavement as it went. No tires, no drivetrain. Traction in snow and ice would not be a problem and our existing roads and highways could still be used to keep vehicles separated. In the air, a whole new rules of right of way would have to be made.

 

[Cujet]

I saw something like a piper cub with a motorcycle for a tail wheel. It was road-able.

 

[Driz]

There are far too many governmental restrictions, regulations and requirements working in opposite directions to ever pull it off. Besides, can you imagine the carnage from road warriors , hillbillies and pissed off soccer moms having a bad hair day.
I knew a guy who killed himself on a high performance home built by doing a zoom climb takeoff and having a large pile of brochures fall onto the back locking him into a departure stall. Can you imagine Jethro fetching a keg of suds for the party? I’ve met enough pilot types that I wouldn’t go around the pattern with to ever want to see the everyday population take to the sky. Theyre bad enough stuck on the ground.

 

[honeeagle]

Aircars are a dead end ,like horse drawn model A .One or the other will survive ,a combo is stupid .Most likely is a personal transport based on a giant drone.

 

[ZeeOSix]

There are far too many governmental restrictions, regulations and requirements working in opposite directions to ever pull it off. Besides, can you imagine the carnage from road warriors , hillbillies and pissed off soccer moms having a bad hair day.
I knew a guy who killed himself on a high performance home built by doing a zoom climb takeoff and having a large pile of brochures fall onto the back locking him into a departure stall. Can you imagine Jethro fetching a keg of suds for the party? I’ve met enough pilot types that I wouldn’t go around the pattern with to ever want to see the everyday population take to the sky. Theyre bad enough stuck on the ground.

It would be Darwinism on steroids.

 

[Astro14]

Honestly, the hope for large scale private air travel is replacing flying skills with automation. Take the pilot out of it, and you can make flying accessible to the masses, who either aren’t going to spend the time/effort or who lack the aptitude for flying.

But a vehicle that serves as both car and airplane is the answer to a question that nobody is asking.

You fly your private plane somewhere, then you rent a car from the FBO. That way, both machines are optimized, and you’re putting road miles on a $30,000 machine, not a $500,000 machine.

 

[RoadDukie]

This kind of experiment is really just recycled 1960's Popular Mechanics stuff. I think it's awesome that people are still pushing boundaries though.

 

[ZeeOSix]

It might become a muli-millionair's toy.

 

[Cujet]

I saw two aircraft configured much like this. One of them had a non-removable Ninja 250 engine and swingarm located mostly inside the tail of the plane. It was a very neat and tidy installation and could be driven on the road using the motorcycle engine as motive power. The other had a removable scooter type powerplant that mounted underneath the empennage, much like the picture above.

Neither was highway speed capable, but were simply a way to keep your plane at home and drive it down the surface street and/or backroads to the airport.

I'm pretty sure the one with the motorcycle engine could also use the main engine's prop power if they wanted to go faster..... As the plane sat quite "nose up" and there would not have been any real risk of ground interference.