Flying car

A flying car is a personal vehicle that provides door-to-door aerial transportation. The term "flying car"

has also been used to refer to roadable aircraft and hovercars. The flying car has been depicted in works

of fantasy and science fiction such as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Though the concept seems to be a workable one but bringing it on the commercial front has been very

challenging task and a surprising number of companies have been working to bring up an acceptable

model.

The flying car was and remains a common feature of science fiction and conceptions of the future,

including imagined near futures such as those of the 21st century. In 1926, Henry Ford displayed an

experimental single-seat aeroplane that he called the "sky flivver". The project was abandoned two

years later when a distance-record attempt flight crashed, killing the pilot.

In past time:

In 1940, Henry Ford famously predicted: "Mark my word: a combination airplane and motorcar is

coming. You may smile, but it will come.”

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, 14-foot-

long two-passenger and was made primarily of composite materials. In 2008, the remaining prototype

was sold for £86k on eBay.

In Modern time:

Aeromobil, a Slovakian company has come up with an upgraded prototype of flying car AeroMobil 3.0.

After an initial test crash, AeroMobil 3.0 finally made a successful maiden flight in the last decade. The

CEO Juraj Vaculik had suggested the company’s plans to launch the model commercially by 2017.

Terrafugia, AeroMobil, PAL-V One, Moller International, Zee.Aero and Urban Aeronautics are among the

few well-known names in this regard who are trying to make future Flying Cars real one day.

Volkswagen, Toyota are the established mobile companies that have also been working on the concept

of Flying Car.

Zee-Aero Inc Google

The infamous Zee-Aero Inc California that was deemed to be remotely linked with Google is actually

owned by Larry Page along with a smaller start-up Kitty-Hawk both of which are located in Googleplex in

Mountain View, California. Zee Aero is headed by famous Aeronautics professor Mr Ilan Kroo and

already has a base of nearly 150 employees. Mr Page has already invested more than $100 million in

Zee.aero.

The flying cars are being developed as casually-used short -distance ride business that can work as per

demand just like Uber industry.The advancements achieved in the battery and computing technology

are making it highly possible to achieve the development of such a kind of flying car but the majorly they

face technical, regulatory and commercial hurdles to come into the real scene.

Mark Moore, an engineer from the NASA said “Over the past five years, there have been these

tremendous advances in the underlying technology. What appears in the next 5 to 10 years will be

incredible.” The engineer even pointed out that the flying cars technological infrastructure is simpler

than the autonomous car projects being undertaken by Google.

Price:

The Skyrunner can now be booked for an amount of $5000 and requires a full payment of $119,000

(£74,282). Terrafugia was expected to be in the commercial scene at any time between 2016 and 2018,

with the prices of $279,000 ( £180,000).

Launch:

AeroMobil, a Slovakian company has planned to launch its flying car AeroMobil 3.0 in 2017 and

Terrafugia in 2018. Yes, folks! The flying machine is lying ready to be launched after final test.

Challenge:

A practical flying car would have to be capable of safely taking off, flying and landing throughout heavily

populated urban environments. However, to date, no vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicle has

ever demonstrated such capabilities.

Driving a flying car would require a pilot’s certificate and also an initial training of 18- 40 hours and

foremost, along with a driver’s license for a flying car. The flying car would require intensive

maintenance for keeping it in perfect workable condition matching initial technical standards and rules

for government regulatory requirements.

Some of the major challenges in the flying car technology is the VTOL capability, the powering-system

for the vehicle and also many safety issues. It seems the technologists have really been able to find

viable solutions to these problems and the name ‘flying cars’ would actually be replaced by something

more technical. And very soon the flying cars will be taking to the skies.

Safety:

Although statistically commercial flying is much safer than driving, unlike commercial planes, personal

flying cars might not have as many safety checks and their pilots would not be as well trained. Humans

already have problems with the aspect of driving in two dimensions (forward and backwards, side to

side), adding in the up and down aspect would make "driving" or flying as it would be, much more

difficult; however, this problem might be solved via the sole use of self-flying and self-driving cars.

Complaints:

The March 15, 1992 Calvin and Hobbes comic strip featured Calvin and his parents driving on the

freeway. Calvin complains, "When are we going to get there? Can't you drive any faster?" His father

replies, "I don't like to go much faster than this." Calvin daydreams that he is allowed to take control of

the vehicle, discovering a hidden "flight mode" that enables the car to soar to their destination.

A 2001 IBM television commercial featured Avery Brooks complaining, "It is the year 2000, but where

are the flying cars? I was promised flying cars. I don’t see any flying cars. Why? Why? Why?

Economies:

In addition, the flying car's energy efficiency would be much lower compared to conventional cars and

other aircraft; optimal fuel efficiency for airplanes is at high speeds and high altitudes, while flying cars

would be used for shorter distances, at higher frequency, lower speeds and lower altitude. For both

environmental and economic reasons, flying cars would be a tremendous waste of resources.

The information contained in this Pdf is for general information purposes only.

Resources:

The information is collected from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_car_(aircraft) and

http://aflyingcars.com/ .