Will the cars fly ?

[First time Juke]

cars

Just a a piece of info here. Fisker KARMA will be produced in Finland soon. They will use the old Porsche Boxter plant and facility over here.

http://newsroom.finland.fi/stt/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=19223&group=Business

http://www.fiskerautomotive.com/

[AirDOGGe]

Re: Will the cars fly ?

When will we learn?...


A car safe enough to drive on public highways is simply going to be too heavy to make for a practical aircraft...


..and any vehicle light enough to make for a good flyer is going to be too fragile to protect passengers in a severe collision, and possibly too difficult to control on windys days.


Heck, I've nearly been blown into the other lane more than once by gusts in my lil' ol' Datsun 510, and that car wasn't all that light (2040 lbs). What chance would a much lighter conversion-car have?


Until someone invents anti-gravity, or technology makes some MAJOR leaps in strenght-to-weight ratios of building materials and such, I don't see it ever happening in a practical sense.


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[Coyote Chris]

Re: Will the cars fly ?

I think AirDOGGe is a very smart person who has this subject nailed....

Also, if your insurance agent needs a good laugh, just call them up and say you want to fly over a population center with a car that doubles as an airplane and you want to know what the insurance costs would be.

[First time Juke]

Re: Will the cars fly ?

I think AirDOGGe is a very smart person who has this subject nailed....

http://www.terrafugia.com/index.html

Try drive that in 25 m/s sidewind....I agree with AirDogge too.

[Reno_Steve]

Re: Will the cars fly ?

I think you need to think more out of the box to build these.
One solution is a quad bike with a paraglider wing.
Another is to have trailers stored at airports which you can hire to put your wings in and then tow with the aircraft/car module.

There is definately a market for these in out back locations where you can fly to a strip and then drive to the mine etc.
One solution is a large plane which can carry a car. (Beverley used by my father to fly to France with his car)
As far as insurance, I think you need to think of it more as a normal aircraft , which is strong enough to be driven on the roads. The operator will need to be a qualified pilot.

[First time Juke]

Re: Will the cars fly ?

Well it seems you just answered your own question Juke!!!

lol

Wolfee

Yeah and I believe this might fly as well... Not without funding it doesn't.

More about it in my blog.

Twin rudders..attachable wings and powertrain + prop..carriable inside the car. Car is 4 seater, but in flying mode only two seater. I might make a model of it soon...if I have the time.

[supercub]

Re: Will the cars fly ?

YES..............there's one on display at Reno this year, and I saw it fly at Marysville a couple of months ago...........Molt Taylors Aerocar. Mueller car I have very little faith in, 4 engines, 4 times the trouble. To complicated, and what happens if one engine fails. Wrong concept all the way around.

[Ken from PG]

Re: Will the cars fly ?

Flying Car at Reno

[AirDOGGe]

Re: Will the cars fly ?

YES..............there's one on display at Reno this year, and I saw it fly at Marysville a couple of months ago...........Molt Taylors Aerocar. Mueller car I have very little faith in, 4 engines, 4 times the trouble. To complicated, and what happens if one engine fails. Wrong concept all the way around.

EIGHT engines, two twin-rotor units per fan, if I recall correctly. HE designed it so for the added safety of redundancy.

[First time Juke]

Re: Will the cars fly ?

How about two electric engines in a pod and a small car engine ?

[Gary Osif]

Re: Will the cars fly ?

Have you seen the 'Terrafugia'?

Look it up if you haven't!

GO

[Gary Osif]

Re: Will the cars fly ?

I see back in the thread that Terrafugia is mentioned.

My bad.

[First time Juke]

Re: Will the cars fly ?

I know Terrafugia...a flying carlike aeroplane.

It is very interesting design; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmInj9uesaQ&feature=fvw

What I am trying is a car that can be corverted into an aerocar...like Molt Taylor did in his Aerocar.

Below how it could look like as a four seater car doing 100+ MPG.

[First time Juke]

Re: Will the cars fly ?

I saw that there is new vehicle type around:

Quadricycle...http://www.microcar.com/legal-requirements.html

This would make my car a enhanced heavy quadricycle..not quite a car but close ( 450 kilos empty ).

This weight aspect is important..lite is safe in the air ( not on impact with Tellus ).