Flying cars - coming/flying to a market near you

[daqq]

Looks fun! I just hope that the quality of drivers improves as fast as the technology:

http://venturebeat.com/2014/10/29/silicon-valley-can-keep-its-teslas-and-robotic-cars-slovakias-aeromobil-just-unveiled-a-flying-car/

[sleemanj]

Very nice.  Have to admit when I saw the first picture of it I thought it looked like it was not exactly flight worthy, looked a bit short coupled, the prop looked a bit small for the aircraft size, looked all a bit rendered, but the in-flight video looks real enough.

That said, I'd rather a PAL-V.

http://youtu.be/LejOps-gHRU?t=1m

[Sigmoid]

I don't want to sound overly cynical, but this is probably the least compelling vehicle I've seen these years...

[Falcon69]

All I can say is, about freakin time.

I grew up watching The Jetsons cartoon.  Ever since then, I've been waiting for the moment when we can all be flying around in our own little cars.

Good luck flying those in America.  The US FFA is even talking about making the drones illegal (little helicopter RC's)

[pickle9000]

That's gotta be in the next bond movie.

[RobertHolcombe]

I was waiting for the nose to hit the ground during landing

[vk6zgo]

They had flying cars in 1947,then in 1957,then in 1977-------They were always just a few years away from
mass marketing.
I won't hold my breath!

[sleemanj]

They had flying cars in 1947,then in 1957,then in 1977-------They were always just a few years away from
mass marketing.
I won't hold my breath!

To be fair, development in the light-sport and recreational aircraft areas really took off in the last decade, after a long period of virtual stagnation in general aviation.

We are very close now to a useful roadable aircraft (see, Terrafugia, PAL-V, this latest one, and a few others).

But that's the key really, roadable aircraft, not flyable car.

[EEVblog]

The impracticality of it makes it a non-starter.
Just like any car that will do over 120kmh (Autobahns excepted in some countries) is pointless for practical purposes, and so is this.

[nctnico]

The impracticality of it makes it a non-starter.
Just like any car that will do over 120kmh (Autobahns excepted in some countries) is pointless for practical purposes, and so is this.

Depends where you live. In most of the EU you won't get along with the traffic if your car can do just 120 or 130 km/h..

[dexters_lab]

dare we even mention the moller skycar? 

either way, flying cars... not for many many decades, sure we can make something that works technically but it will be legal issues that will prevent it from happening

[rob77]

The impracticality of it makes it a non-starter.
Just like any car that will do over 120kmh (Autobahns excepted in some countries) is pointless for practical purposes, and so is this.

agree - it's impractical as a car ! but that's not a car - that's supposed to be a road legal ultralight plane. and that's a very useful thing

imagine a situation: you are a pilot of a ultralight plane (in EU up to 470kg take-off weight can be ultralight) and you want to go from "A"  to "B" using your plane. so you drive your car to the airfield where you hangar your plane - park the car, prepare your plane and take offf - after some time you land at the airfield closest to "B" and you need to take a taxi/cab to get yourself to "B"

with a road legal plane it's very easy: - drive yourself to the airfield, take off, land near"B", drive yourself to "B".

[tszaboo]

with a road legal plane it's very easy: - drive yourself to the airfield, take off, land near"B", drive yourself to "B".

Could really be fun. There are small airfields every like 30-50Km across europe. I mean people are going on bicycle trips for weeks, others go through the Atlantic with a canoe, yet others fly to distant places in a blue police box. I dont see how would this be worse. I mean it is not practical or anything, but sure it is fun.

[rob77]

with a road legal plane it's very easy: - drive yourself to the airfield, take off, land near"B", drive yourself to "B".

Could really be fun. There are small airfields every like 30-50Km across europe. I mean people are going on bicycle trips for weeks, others go through the Atlantic with a canoe, yet others fly to distant places in a blue police box. I dont see how would this be worse. I mean it is not practical or anything, but sure it is fun.

in Europe it's for fun and in 3rd world countries a way of transportation

just consider the popular ultralight planes - max take off wight 472kg - with most of them you can fly alone + some very limited cargo (10-15kg max), or you must be slim and you can take another slim person with you so ultralights are definitely flying for fun (slim person wights upto 85kg )

the license for ultralight is something like 3k Eur (compared to 7k+ Eur for a PPL) so it's being quite popular nowadays - especially because of the leap in technology.... you can have a very sophisticated avionics in a ultralight airplane nowadays, even autopilot. in fact today's modern ultralights (like Dynamic WT9)  are many times better equipped than the older popular small airplanes (like the cessna 152). 

ultralights are becoming more affordable and more popular in europe, so i can imagine that the road legal plane will have some future
it won't change the world for sure, but probably they'll sell few hundreds of those

[Smokey]

I was waiting for the nose to hit the ground during landing

That was exactly what I was thinking. 

[n45048]

As long as the gearbox isn't manufactured by Volkswagen! I have been very disappointed in them recently. Not just with one vehicle, but three. I've had an entire transmission changed in a new Amarok (under warranty) plus issues with two Golf's (none of them are DSG auto's).

Next car will be a Volvo!

Just like any car that will do over 120kmh (Autobahns excepted in some countries) is pointless for practical purposes, and so is this.

Emergency services? Speeds of 120-160 aren't uncommon (fire brigade excepted).

[SeanB]

Yes, the newer ones have been cost cutted too far. It is costing them in reliability and in in-warranty claims for vehicles.

[rob77]

Yes, the newer ones have been cost cutted too far. It is costing them in reliability and in in-warranty claims for vehicles.

and mainly everything breaks down just outside of warranty VW passat 2010 2 litre CR diesel... after 65k km - turbo charger actuator, 70k km - front axle bearing on both sides (2 months apart), 113k km - high pressure injection pump (that shite is from Bosh) the pump took all the injectors with it (the pump flooded the injection rail with aluminium filings)

so yes, new cars are piece of shit and there is no added value in VW anymore - so you pay for the VW logo not the quality as it was before (had a B5 passat before). my next car will be a Dacia - half the price of comparable VW.

but back to the road legal plane - that one is a ultralight so definitely doesn't have a gearbox from VW - the guy who designed it had to use lightweight components

[Timmay]

Not to sound like the Debbie Downer but unless these are automated its really a pipe dream IN MY OPINION. A crash on the ground level is one thing, X amount of feet in the air is another. Now I know they will take that into consideration (I hope) but, I am trying to bounce this idea in my head and still just don't see it, at least in the short term.

[SeanB]

My VW golf is coming due for it's 215000km service soon. Only things that died are water pump ( so common) twice, one front bearing, rear bearings, fan heater resistor ( I used a later model one and modified it to fit, otherwise $100 from agents), head gasket ( also common, but I got it quick so did not have a head break into 3 pieces) and the AC is also in need of a new compressor and a new drier ( Waiting for enough money to buy the parts to do it), but so far it is working out a lot cheaper to run than new car payments. It will soon be a teenager.

As to flying cars you will never have them as a vehicle for the masses, it just will not work, as you cannot control them accurately enough with any current ATC, or you will have a rain of falling cars in every city every day. Now, if you get automated vehicles to the point where you can get in and go from any place to any place without intervention, you can have a similar system for flying cars. It however will be limited in both places and in conditions, like current flights, so you would be better off with automated roads and cars to go on them connecting places, and have airlines like current systems for the long haul. You cannot have a SUV like aircraft that is both a good aircraft, and a good road vehicle. You compromise greatly on all sides.

[djacobow]

Looks cool, but like the Terrafugia, this suffers from the problem of being a crappy car and a crappy airplane. It's really hard to make something that is good at both. For example, those tires are just dead weight and volume in the air. Similarly, a fuselage fuel tank makes a waste of the space in the wings.

I'll take fixed gear 182 and a beater "airport car" any day.

Looks fun! I just hope that the quality of drivers improves as fast as the technology:

http://venturebeat.com/2014/10/29/silicon-valley-can-keep-its-teslas-and-robotic-cars-slovakias-aeromobil-just-unveiled-a-flying-car/

[n45048]

My VW golf is coming due for it's 215000km service soon.

Your Golf is from when VW were good! Most cars just aren't built to last anymore. I have an old 1989 Mercedes Benz which is almost at 800,000KM and still runs great, it's my daily run about. Somehow I don't think my VW will last anywhere near that. Then you have brands such as Subaru, Hyundai, Holden, Ford, which will be lucky to hit the 100,000KM mark without imploding these days.

The only manufacturers I have any faith in these days (and are affordable) are Mercedes, Volvo, Audi and any Toyota Landcruiser troop carrier or Hilux.

[Sigmoid]

This is what this reminds me of...
http://www.weebls-stuff.com/songs/dugong/