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Fairly Realistic Flying Car Offered for 2009 Delivery
An anonymous reader writes to tell us about yet another promise of a flying car. The Register is reporting on the latest from Terrafugia Inc called the "Transition" which is a combination car and airplane that runs on unleaded gas. The idea is that it's a car that you can drive to the nearest airstrip and, with the touch of a button, convert to an airplane, fly to an airstrip close to your goal, then convert back to a car to reach your ultimate destination. Of course, how many times have we been promised flying cars only to suffer in perpetual disappointment.
when you need him? Bring us Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang! Now THERE's a flying car.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens.
This won't ever become mainstream without a serious amount of automated control. We already have enough problems driving in two dimensions. I can't even begin to imagine driving in three.
What's worse, you'd probably see some idiot "driver" flying 300 miles with his right turn signal on.
...phil
"For a list of the ways which technology has failed to improve our quality of life, press 3."
If you increase the power enough (jets anyone) you can reduce the size of the airfoils as you raise the velocity, but you pay for this with increased takeoff and cruising speeds. There are obvious hazards here as well as very high fuel costs. Helicopters cost a lot more to fly and maintain that fixed wing planes for good reason.
Do you want the average driver trying to fly over your city or land in your neighborhood at very high velocities? I sure don't. Bad weather would make the situation worse.
Even with the current safety status of fixed wing planes, if you ever try to get a very large life insurance policy, they may well ask you if you fly planes. There is a reason they ask.
Yes! Drug-trafficking, immigration, etc. These things would become totally unmanagable. And what about stupid teenagers that run out of gas in the middle of the atlantic? But even though the technology wouldn't be publicly available, that is not to say that it won't be useful for some purposes. Furthermore, who needs justification for cool technology to exist?
The construction of a plane is nowhere nearly hardy enough for typical road use. If you end up hitting just a bit of potholes, speedbumps, etc, are you ready to that vehicle in the air? Hell, cars these days are build with crash bumpers that are supposed to take a 5mph bump without driveability-affecting damage - no planes have them. The undercarriage of a car includes some of the world's most advanced engineering tuned for stability, handling, suspension and road noise - which adds significant weight. A plane has a few wheels (one that turns) and struts, nothing so complicated - because its light and just durable enough for landing on the runway. TFA mentions drivetrain and wing storage as two other clashing designs, but there are several more (road worthiness, air worthiness, strength, durability, luxury, maintenance).
It comes down to tuning for the target environment. A car is not a boat. A plane is not a car. Shoes are not wheels. Targeting two has predictable results: Everyone is let down.
It amazes me the number of people who really do still seem to believe that flying cars and Star Trek are the future (I know the parent was joking, but there is a serious point here).
I haven't got my crystal ball with me, but I'm still fairly sure that if there's going to be a future, it's not going to involve petrol powered flying cars pumping out CO2 on an unprecedented scale.
I'm also fairly sure that if human civilization ever does advance to the point where interstellar travel is possible it will require us to evolve our ideas a little beyond the America in space that the Star Trek franchise basically represents.
I for one don't think the immediate future is going in the direction of flying cars and starships, right now I'd be happy if the human race just concentrated on finding a way to avoid polluting or blasting ourselves back to neolithic times, nevermind anything else.
To be a capable and licenseable road vehicle, it needs to have things like Lights, Bumpers, Side-Impact protection. Not to mention meet pollution regulations. And um, pneumatic tires, wheels, a transmission, and capable brakes. Those all add a heck of a lot of weight. At least 500 pounds that an airplane does not need. So it's going to be a mighty lousy airplane. Carrying a useless 500 pounds at air-freight costs is not an economical way to fly.
Then there are the FAA regulations, which are very strict, and hardly in conformance with the road regulations. Many very basic regulations about configuration are very hard to reconcile with the needs of an auto. The alternative is to license it as an experimental aircraft, which gives you some freedoms, but closes a lot of windows too-- making the plane difficult to insure, finance, and restricts its uses.
Because it would be too heavy. The aircraft from TFA is just a conventional airplane with a fancy transmission and foldable wings and can't get airborne with a full tank of gas and two fat people. Add batteries an electric motor, a heavier diesel engine, ditch the wings and propellor for a less efficient rotor in a roadway-sized package and you'll end up with a flying brick. Minus the flying part.
Overall, the qualities that make for a good car also make for a lousy aircraft (and vice versa).
I read the material and see this for what it is: an attempt to make an airplane drivable. It is clearly intended for use primarily as a plane (under visual flight rules only!) but can be driven on the roads to and from your house. The "carness" is supposed to be good enough to drive in bad weather that you wouldn't fly in. But, there is a note on the page that it really isn't suited for city driving.
So, for the target audience, say a salesman with a large territory of fairly rural clients somewhat close to airports, this could be reasonable.
Will it succeed? Who knows? how many new airplanes succeed? how many new cars succeed? They're having to beat both odds
now instead of worrying about just the idiots around me who can't drive, now I gotta worry about the ones above me too?
they'll be on their cell phones and eating a burger while flying their cars.