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Aeromobil Flying Car Prototype Gets Off the Ground For the First Time
Zothecula writes "There is a saying in flying: 'If it looks good, it will fly well.' Stefan Klein, a designer from the Slovak Republic, has announced the first flight of his Aeromobil Version 2.5, a flying car prototype he has been developing over the last 20 years. This vehicle is a strikingly beautiful design with folding wings and a propeller in the tail. But will its flight capabilities match its looks?"
I've been checking up on the company every couple years since the 90's, and every time they redesign it just gets closer to a small plane with retractable wings. I guess that's to be expected though, since we've had 100 years to come up with a good design. Every new design has also moved away from the space of being in a road vehicle and become more and more cramped like in a cockpit.
At what point does it stop being a compact car and just become a plane that can be stored in smaller places? It's not like he can just take off from the road, he still needs an airport. Doesn't that defeat the entire purpose of a flying car?
"Well kids, you tried your best, and you failed. The lesson is, never try." -Homer Simpson
Nope, as shown by girls on bridges and tall buildings.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
Yeah, good luck driving that thing to the supermarket.
If you want to see a "flying car", it will look more like the "Air Mule" (you'll have to google that folks) being developed by the Israelis.
It's basically a ducted fan in front of the passenger space, and a ducted fan behind the passenger space. Chances are, it doesn't have much range.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
1) Its not good car
2) Its not good plane either
3) You have to go to airport to take off
4) Most probably if you can afford flying car, you can afford car and plane together each by itself.
Flying car is cool only if you can take off whenever you want off, wherever you want.
As usual, this is not a car that can fly, this is a plane that can drive. But I guess that's just because physics is a bitch.
Pretty unstable, that is. The thing has almost no ground clearance, and seemed to really be wobbly on takeoff. I'd be pretty nervous for takeoffs and landings.
A single shopping cart ding could render your vehicle un-airworthy.
Form and function. You can't always make a biquine when the problem spaces are so drastically different.
Now you know why iMaps sends you to the runway of Fairbanks airport.
You're just not cool enough to have an iCar yet.
Every few months we get an article that completely forgets this distinction. A Flying Car is a something that acts like a Car, but by flying rather then relying on wheels. A car that flies is a car that has the ability to turn into a plane / helicopter / autogyro / etc.
Very different concepts. Still, in another decade, we will probably have something that can act like a decent car and decent plane, which would be great for islanders.
For a Flying Car, though, we'll pretty much have to rewrite the laws of physics. We'll need something like repulsorlift or mass effect fields.
At what point does it stop being a compact car and just become a plane that can be stored in smaller places? It's not like he can just take off from the road, he still needs an airport. Doesn't that defeat the entire purpose of a flying car?
As a private pilot, one of these would just be the bomb! Small planes are at their best for medium range trips - between 100 and 500 miles. The biggest problem is that airports tend to be in outlying areas and there is almost always a 5 to 15 mile drive from the airport to your "real" destination. It's far enough to make Cab driving expensive and inconvenient, it's close enough that renting a car for a day seems like overkill.
In any event, it's a hassle to schlep your stuff out of the plane parked at the airport into the cab, wait 20 minutes, etc. Being able to land, fold wings, and drive that 5 to 15 miles would be just great!
Most people don't realize that nearly every city in the USA with more than 20,000 people or so has an airport within 10-20 miles.
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
TFS is also TFS of the linked gizmag article...is that all it takes to get a Slashdot submission now?
The PAL-V linked in the article seems much more useful. Decent gas mileage on the road, much shorter runway needs, and much more compact a "road" design.
Otherwise it doesn't work. Now the idea of "Flying Cars" has been around since at least the 1920's but there's a reason they're not flying through our skies today.
Winged aircraft simply don't work in a city.
Also ubiquitous noisy rotor propelled aircraft don't work in a city either.
So until there's a reasonably quiet propulsion system that lets you fly a car without wings, this invention will forever be out of reach.
considering how well people drive around here on roads, with lines and signs directing them where and how to drive... imagine those same drivers, flying in the air, with neither.
but still pretty cool.
In the video, the aircraft seemed to fly level at an altitude no higher than its wingspan. This would have been in the ground effect flight regime, in which fixed wing aircraft have a bit more lift and less drag than at higher altitudes. Takes less power to fly in ground effect.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_effect_(aircraft)
Hats off to the designer. If I were a pilot, I'd be psyched. I'd also want to inspect my prop before every flight. It's just out there in back. You'd probably know if you bottomed on a pothole and dinged it; but what about more subtle damage? If you really messed up the prop without knowing it, could switching the gear box to an unbalanced prop create a serious hazard for other people on the ground? I have zero experience with that kind of thing... just speculating. Ditto for control surfaces. Normal planes don't spend much time taxiing, and around airports people care about debris. On the road you can hit all kinds of stuff. That seems like the no. 1 obstacle to the ideal of "drive up to the airport and switch modes". You're taking a big chance not inspecting it for road damage before flight, even if you live close to the airport.
It does look like one of the better flying car designs. Its not simply a car with some wings that can be strapped to it and it looks to be pretty decent on the roads. I suppose the only questions left would be cost, if its going to cost $400K plus for one you're not going to see much interest beyond millionaires. But if it is in the $50 - $100K range and proves to be a stable aircraft that can be flown regularly it could very well see widespread usage.
I do not want to see a single flying car for people till they have self driving vehicles out, perfected, and standard.
The last thing I want is some drunk driver flying around over my head or someone who can't wait to answer their text. A good self-driving flying car can work but millions of people flying overhead in 1000+ pound missiles having to rely on all of them to not be retarded enough to cause a fender bender in midair that causes them to drop out of the sky onto whatever is below them, let alone the big accidents.... No thanks.
Not knock the technical prowess of the lads making this. But it has to be said that with such a design you'd inevitably wind up with a crap car and a shitty airplane. Just buy a car and a plain. Just call a cab if/when you land with a conventional plain and when you are in need of transportation.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
..or so I assume. Looks to me like video of a drivable vehicle cut with that of a flying scale prototype, with footage of the pilot matted in - the rate of instability in flight put doubts in my mind. If this is true, you have to ask why so much effort to avoid showing the reality.
The Terrafugia Transition may not be as "attractive" but it's far closer to being an actual product that people can drive / fly. There are big tradeoffs when you add road capability to a light plane - it adds a lot of weight. The Aeromobil also appears to be shooting for something that can legally be considered a light sport aircraft in the US, so if it weights "only" about a thousand pounds, that gives you almost no capacity for passengers and fuel. 400 mile range is not a lot.
it drives fine, but if flys like shit. Its too nose heavy coming off the run way for any good plane.
This week I got to meet Stefan Klein in Bratislava ... where he was the winner of my "Gamechangers of the CEE 2013" event.
Aeromobil is no gimmick, and the prototype can really fly ... in fact he was just back from North America where he hopes to partner with Boeing and NASA in making the full concept practical and commercial.
For me he's a great "Gamechanger" ... not just with his innovation, but the way he combines art and technology, vision and design, passion and discipline.
You can read my interview, video, presentation and more at EinsteinPicasso.com/8 or more about my book at Gamechangers.pro