A flying car is a type of personal air vehicle that provides door-to-door transportation by both road and air. The term "flying car" is often used to include roadable aircraft and hovercars. Many prototypes have been built since the first years of the twentieth century, but no flying car has yet reached production status. Their appearance is often predicted by futurologists, with their failure ever to reach production leading to the catchphrase, "Where's my flying car?" Flying cars are also a popular theme in fantasy and science fiction stories.
History
Early developments
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.[1]
The Flivver was not a flying car at all, but it did get press attention at the
time, exciting the public that they would have a mass-produced affordable
airplane product that would be made, marketed, sold, and maintained just like
an automobile. The airplane was to be as commonplace in the future as the Model
T of the 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
1956, Ford's Advanced Design studio built the Volante
Tri-Athodyne, a 3/8 scale concept car model. It was designed to have three
ducted fans, each with their own motor, that would lift it off the ground and
move it through the air. In public relation release, Ford noted that "the
day where there will be an aero-car in every garage is still some time off",
but added that "the Volante indicates one direction that the styling of
such a vehicle would take".
In
1957, Popular Mechanics reported that Hiller
Helicopters was developing a ducted-fan aircraft that would be easier to
fly than helicopters, and should cost a lot less. Hiller engineers expected
that this type of an aircraft would become the basis for a whole family of
special-purpose aircraft.
In
1956, the US Army's Transportation Research Command began an investigation into
"flying jeeps", ducted-fan-based aircraft that were envisioned to be
smaller and easier to fly than helicopters. In 1957, Chrysler, Curtiss-Wright,
and Piasecki
were assigned contracts for building and delivery of prototypes. They all
delivered their prototypes; however, Piasecki's VZ-8 was the most successful of the three.
While it would normally operate close to the ground, it was capable of flying
to several thousand feet, proving to be stable in flight. Nonetheless, the Army
decided that the "Flying Jeep concept [was] unsuitable for the modern battlefield",
and concentrated on the development of conventional helicopters. In addition to
the army contract, Piasecki was developing the Sky Car, a modified version of
its VZ-8 for civilian use.
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 (4.3 m) two-passenger and was
made primarily of composite materials.[4]
In 2008, the remaining prototype was sold for £86k on eBay.[5]
Xplorair PX200
(1/2 scale model) at Paris Air Show 2013
Modern developments
AeroMobil
currently fly-tests a prototype that obtained Slovak ultralight
certification. When the final product will be available or how much it will
cost is not yet specified.[6]
Urban
Aeronautics' X-Hawk[7]
is a VTOL turbojet
powered aircraft
announced in 2006 with a first flight planned for 2009. It was intended to
operate much like a tandem rotor helicopter,
but with ducted fans rather than exposed rotors. The requisite decrease in
rotor size would also decrease fuel efficiency. The X-Hawk was being promoted
for rescue and utility functions. As of 2013, no flights had been reported.
The
Moller Skycar M400[8][9]
is a prototype
personal VTOL
(vertical take-off and landing) aircraft which is powered by four pairs of in-tandem Wankel rotary engines, and is approaching the
problems of satellite-navigation, incorporated in the proposed Small Aircraft Transportation
System. Moller also advises that, currently, the Skycar would only be
allowed to fly from airports & heliports. Moller has been developing VTOL
craft since the late 1960s, but no Moller vehicle has ever achieved free flight
out of ground effect. The proposed Autovolantor model has an all-electric
version powered by Altairnano batteries.[10]
The
Xplorair PX200
is a French project of single-seater VTOL aircraft without
rotating airfoil,
relying on the Coandă effect and using an array of small jet engines
called thermoreactors embedded within tiltwings'
body. Announced in 2007, the project has been funded by the Government
of France and is now supported by various aerospace firms. A full-scale drone is scheduled for flight at Paris
Air Show 2017, followed by the commercialization of a single-seater flying
car in the years after.
On
May 7, 2013, Terrafugia announced the TF-X,
a plug-in hybrid tilt-rotor vehicle that would be the first fully autonomous
flying car. It has a range of 500 miles (800 km) per flight and batteries
are rechargeable by the engine. Development of TF-X is expected to last 8–12
years, which means it will not come to market before 2021–2025. The SkyRider
X2R is a prototype of a flying car developed by MACRO Industries, Inc. It
is lighter than the Moller Skycar.
Also
notable is the roadable aircraft PAL-V ONE, which is an autogyro or gyrocopter
that can be taken to the road, too.
Design
Engineering
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. To
produce such an aircraft would require a propulsion system that is quiet, to
avoid noise complaints, and has non-exposed rotors so it
could be flown safely in urban environments. Additionally, for such aircraft to
become airborne, they would require very powerful engines. Many types of
aircraft technologies and form factors have been suggested, such as ducted-fan
and tiltrotor
vehicles,[11]
but most previous designs have suffered from problems; ducted-fan aircraft tend
to easily lose stability and have difficulty traveling greater than 30–40 knots,[12]
while tiltrotors, such as the V-22
Osprey, are generally noisy.
Economics
Due
to the requirement of propulsion that is both small and powerful, the cost of
producing a flying car would be very high and estimated by some as much as 10
million dollars.[13]
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,[14]
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.
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.[15]
In mid-air collisions and mechanical failures, the
aircraft could fall from the sky or go through an emergency landing, resulting
in deaths and property damage.[16]
In addition, poor weather conditions, such as low air density, lightning storms
and heavy rain, snow or fog could be challenging and affect the aircraft's
aerodynamics
Popular culture
Where's my flying car?
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The
flying car was and remains a common feature of conceptions of
the future, including imagined near futures such as those of the 21st
century. Complaints of the non-existence of flying cars have become nearly
idiomatic as expressions of disappointment in the failure of the present to
measure up to the glory of past predictions.[citation needed]
In
1999 the U.S. journalist Gail Collins noted:
Here
we are, less than a month until the turn of the millennium, and what I want to
know is, what happened to the flying cars? We're about to become Americans of
the 21st century. People have been predicting what we'd be like for more than
100 years, and our accoutrements don't entirely live up to expectations. (...)
Our failure to produce flying cars seems like a particular betrayal since it
was so central to our image.[18]
As
a result, flying cars have been referred to jokingly with the question
"Where's my flying car?", emblematic of the supposed failure of modern
technology to match futuristic visions that were promoted in earlier decades.[notes
1]
Aired
on January 8, 1998, Seinfeld's 167th episode, "The
Dealership", featured George and Jerry complaining about the
non-existence of the flying cars. Jerry says, "It's like we're living in
the '50s here."
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?"[20]
Comedian
Lewis
Black had a similar routine early in the decade, in which he says,
"This new millennium sucks! It's exactly the same as the old millennium!
You know why? No flying cars!"[citation needed]
The
Flying Car was a comedy short film
written by Kevin Smith in 2002 for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
It featured Dante Hicks and Randal
Graves stuck in traffic, discussing the lengths to which a man might go to
obtain such a vehicle.[21]
In
2008, Onion News Network's 245th episode, titled
"Mean Automakers Dash Nation's Hope for Flying Cars", featured The Onion's
anchor Brandon Armstrong humorously arguing about the
feasibility and existence of flying cars with representatives from General
Motors, Toyota
and Ford.[22]
Fiction
The
flying car has been depicted in many works of fantasy and science
fiction.[23]
Live action films
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- Star Wars (1977–present)
Flying cars appear in Star Wars where they are called airspeeders,
such as those that can be seen on the planet of Coruscant in
all three Star
Wars prequel movies, from 1999's Star Wars: Episode I – The
Phantom Menace onward. They are also featured in Star Wars: Episode II –
Attack of the Clones, where an early chase sequence involves flying
cars. In 2005's Star Wars: Episode III –
Revenge of the Sith, Bail Organa rides a retro-futuristic vehicle that apart
from its flying ability resembles a 1950-style car.
- Blade Runner (1982)
"Spinner" is the generic term for the fictional
flying cars used in Blade Runner, set in futuristic-cyberpunk Los
Angeles of 2019. A Spinner can be driven as a ground-based vehicle, and
take off vertically, hover, and cruise using jet
propulsion much like Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft. They are used
extensively by the police to patrol and survey the population, and it is clear
that despite restrictions wealthy people can acquire spinner licenses.[24]
The vehicle was conceived and designed by Syd Mead who
described the spinner as an "aerodyne"—a vehicle which directs air
downward to create lift, though press kits for the film stated that the
spinner was propelled by three engines: "conventional internal combustion, jet, and anti-gravity"[25]
Mead's conceptual drawings were transformed into 25 working vehicles by
automobile customizer Gene Winfield.[26]
A Spinner is on permanent exhibit at the Science Fiction Museum and Hall
of Fame in Seattle, Washington.[27]
- Back to the Future and Back to the Future Part II (1985/1989)
In Back to the Future Part II and the
ending of Back to the Future, Doc Brown invites Marty
and his girlfriend Jennifer in his modified flying DeLorean time machine, and
time travels to the year 2015 where flying hovercars are a common sight.
- The Fifth Element (1997)
In
The Fifth Element, set in 2263 New
York City, flying cars are used as main mean of transportation. The
production design for the film was developed by French comics creators Jean
Giraud[29]
and Jean-Claude Mézières.[30]
Mézières wrote the book The Circles of Power, which features a
character named S'Traks, who drives a flying taxicab through the congested air
traffic of the vast metropolis on the planet Rubanis. Besson read the book and
was inspired to change the Dallas character to a taxicab driver who flies
through a futuristic New York City.[31][32]
- Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: Professor Caractacus Potts salvages a broken classic race car and converts it into a flying car with wings sporting external propellers.
- The Absent Minded Professor: Professor Ned Brainard (Fred MacMurray) makes a Model T fly using flubber. His flying car also appears in the sequel, Son of Flubber, and in the 1997 remake, Flubber, starring Robin Williams.
- Star Wars: Flying cars can be seen in the republic city of Coruscant.
- Back to the Future Part II: Dr. Emmett Brown converts a DeLorean DMC-12 into a time machine, which is modified in the second part of the Back to the Future trilogy so that it can fly.
- Blade Runner: Wealthy people and the police use "Spinners", antigravity flying cars, to move in the Los Angeles of 2019.
- The Fifth Element: Flying cars can be seen in New York City.
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Mr. Weasley bewitched a Ford Anglia 105E to make it flyable and invisible.
- Halloweentown: Marnie Cromwell, her brother Dylan and sister Sophie take a flying bus to Halloweentown to visit their grandmother and save Halloweentown from a villain named Kalabar.
- The Man with the Golden Gun: The villain, Francisco Scaramanga, owns an AMC Matador coupe that can be converted into a light airplane when wings with a jet engine and a flight tail unit are attached (the car serves as the fuselage and landing gear).
- Thunderbirds: Lady Penelope's pink Ford can extend wings and a gas-powered jet engine and take flight, retracting its back wheels. It can also, from flight setting, travel on water, where the wings fold down, and the front wheels retract. In the first film of the original puppet show, in Alan's dream, the original FAB1 Rolls-Royce flew him and Lady Penelope to the Swinging Star.
- Sky High: Sky High is a high-school for superheroes and since the school floats thousands of feet above ground, they make use of flying school-buses to get to-and-fro the ground
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