Posted on 04/03/2012 11:22:06 AM PDT by Red Badger
Is it a flying car or a driving aircraft? Either way, the Personal Air and Land Vehicle, or PAL-V for short, has just proved it can handle the skies as well as the highway, both at up to 180 kilometres (112 miles) per hour, its Dutch developers said Tuesday.
The PAL-V is a gyrocopter that can fly as far as 500 kilometres (315 miles) at an altitude of up to 4,000 feet (1,200 metres).
When it lands, it tucks away its rotor-blades and turns into a road-legal three-wheeled vehicle with a range of 1,200 kilometres.
"In future, you will be able to drive from home to the airport, take off, land and then drive to your destination in one go," said Robert Dingemanse, chief executive of the company, also called PAL-V.
"The successful maiden flight of the PAL-V protoype was conducted at a Dutch Air Force base last month," added the head of the company, based in Raamsdonksveer near the eastern city of Nijmegen.
"It will revolutionise the era of personal air travel," said Jacco Hoekstra, dean of the aerospace faculty at Delft Technical University, which with the Dutch National Aerospace Laboratory cooperated on the project.
"Before, air travel was mainly based on public transport," Hoekstra said. "Now it will become a lot more personal -- you will simply be able to walk out your door, drive to a small airfield and fly away."
If the PAL-V sounds like the perfect getaway vehicle from a traffic jam, there is a hitch -- it requires 165 metres of runway to take off, 30 metres to land and can only be flown from airports.
For more than a century inventors have been trying to combine cars and planes, and several companies have joined the race to make the first commercially-produced "flying car."
US-based firm Terrafugia said Monday they had successfully tested their own street-legal plane called the the "Transition."
Might be able to shorten that up a bit with a good catapult :-)
I had to fly extensively in helicopters in my youth. I was young, stupid and ‘invincible’.
I’ll never again get on a helicopter unless it has wings.
"Cut me off, will you?"
Actually I think Mitt had one patrolling the 2002 Olympics.
Rear wheels are powered via transmission just like any other trike set-up. PTO for the deployed rotorhead.
I've had my eye on this company since first catching wind of them a few years back.
I WANT MY FLYING CAR. I don't care who makes it.
Alaska STOL Contest. See it now and believe it later.
Yikes, he’s not going to make a three point landing.
—Take cue from former three wheel ATV manufacturers why don’t you?—
Did you notice it leans in the curves?
Guy in the cockpit(front seat?) looks pretty happy and confident. Bet he is listening to Rush in that headset.
Based on my anecdotal observations of the auto handling ability of the typical “driver”, There is no way I can support allowing them to fly. People who can barely handle two dimensions of motion should not be allowed to add a third.
Agreed let folks who read the morning paper ,shave ,drink coffee from a regular mug while in rush hour traffic is just begging for blood gits & feathers to be scattered all over the place.
The military is looking at a flying humvee...............
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-10/darpas-flying-humvee-moving-prototype-phase
Not worth arguing. 112 MPH? Won’t be on the roads.
Also impractical for the consumer
That must have been a wicked crosswind landing!
If you look at the windsock behind the craft you will notice that there was a pretty good crosswind.
Best regards,
SF
As I flight instructor, I really can’t see the “flying car” evertaking off (pun intended)even if it were only 40K!
It’s difficult enough to teach some to drive a car let alone an airplane!(Just imagine the idiot who cuts you off in auto traffic flying about!)
You’ve identified why the skies wouldn’t resemble a freeway at rush hour, even with inexpensive gyro-planes. If you go to the website or see one fly, however, it is amazing.
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