Long before Chitty Chitty, Bang Bang hit the silver screen and for years prior to Moulton Taylor creating his 1949 Aerocar - people have dreamed of a future in which flying cars are a reality of personal transport.
The idea that you can trade congested motorways for clear, blue skies has undeniable appeal, and some would argue that bringing the concept to the masses would solve several logistical problems linked to increased traffic on our roads.
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But could it really happen? Why hasn’t it happened already? Will you need to carry breathalyser kits and a high-vis jacket if you drift into French airspace? None of these questions have unequivocal answers, and until someone comes up with a viable solution to the flying car problem, that isn’t going to change.
Some companies are having a concerted crack at building and selling flying cars though. Most are focusing on simple, point-to-point aircraft and ignoring the complication of making their contraptions road legal, although others have accepted the challenge of mastering both asphalt and the lower atmosphere.
What is a flying car?
Before we go any further, do bear in mind that the term ‘flying car’ can be a little bit of a misnomer. How you name these airborne conveyances depends on each machine’s main purpose: while a car that has been adapted to fly might well be a ‘flying car’, a plane that has been modified for road use is more likely to be called a ‘roadable aircraft’. Most of the machines you can go out and buy today fall into the latter category. So now you know.
The difficulty in designing and engineering such a vehicle cannot be overstated. Any flying car needs power for the wheels and a set of rotor blades, must have controls for driving and flying, and has to be simultaneously compliant with the two sets of regulations that govern motoring and aviation. Then you have to factor-in the logistics of taking off and landing, the qualifications of the pilot, the insurance and all kinds of other elements. It’s no small feat.
Without completely reliable software to automate everything, it’s unlikely we’ll be getting airworthy hatchbacks any time soon. But it isn’t impossible and some companies are convinced that flying cars will become reality.
Scroll down to see some flying cars of the present and the future, and let us know what you think about the idea of aeronautical motoring in the comments section below.
Terrafugia Transition
Self-billed as the “world’s first practical flying car”, Terrafugia’s Transition falls into the ‘roadable aircraft’ bracket as a plane first and foremost, but with road-going capabilities. The project first got off the ground (pardon the pun) with a maiden prototype flight in 2009, but has since stalled (pardon that pun as well) in pursuit of a Light Sport Aircraft licence from the authorities. This was eventually granted in June 2016, but Terrafugia still has hurdles to overcome before a scheduled production run in 2019.
The Massachusetts company is reportedly aiming for a unit price of $300,000-$400,000 (£240,000-£320,000), and the Transition will be capable of 100mph at an altitude of 10,000ft with an estimated range of 400 miles. And that’s with conventional gasoline in the tank. With the wings furled away it will then be able to take to the streets, although little is known about its ground-going performance. Terrafugia simply promises that it will achieve “highway speeds”.
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AeroMobil 3.0
“Mark my word: a combination of airplane and motorcar is coming. You may smile, but it will come.” This quote, attributed to none other than Henry Ford in 1940, takes pride of place on AeroMobil’s website, and much like Terrafugia, this Slovakian company has endured years of development to reach its current stage.
The 3.0 is its latest prototype in a quest to construct a flying car, although the firm believes this incarnation contains all of the main features that will appear on the final product, “in the next two to three years”.
As well as having no delivery date, AeroMobil won’t say how fast their flying car will be, what it’s range is or how much it will cost. The only clue towards the price is that it will set customers back “several hundreds of thousand Euro.” Hmmm.
That said we like the elegance of the design - the wings fold away behind the rear-mounted propellor - and the evidence suggests that transitioning between drive and flight modes will take but a moment.
PAL-V Liberty
Based in The Netherlands, PAL-V has taken a slightly different approach with a design that closely resembles the familiar helicopter with a centre-mounted rotor blade. As is the way with these things, a final product is still under development but the company produced a proof-of-concept prototype in 2012 and is confident of delivering its first model at a yet-to-be-determined time in the future.
PAL-V has at least been more up-front with performance specs. In driving mode the Liberty should do 0-62mph in under nine seconds thanks to a 100hp engine, with a top speed just shy of 100mph. Better still, the suspension allows the body to tilt into the corners, so it might actually be quite fun on a twisty B-road.
In the air the Liberty will have 200hp at its disposal, with a top speed of over 110mph and a maximum range of over 300 miles in the right conditions. Maximum altitude comes in at around 11,500ft, and while vertical take-off isn’t an option, landing should be a piece of cake, the machine needing just 30m of tarmac to touch down on. The folding mechanism that converts it to a car is clever too.
Terrafugia TF-X
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Terrafugia would be too busy delivering the Transition to work on anything else, but you’d be wrong. This is the TF-X, and it’s the US company’s vision for what the flying car will look like a generation ahead of the one they’re currently building. That’s ambition for you.
Terrafugia admits that it has no timetable for when the TF-X will be available for purchase, but has already committed to a number of performance figures. The ‘Electric Motor Pods’ will produce 1MW of power, giving the TF-X a cruising speed of 200mph and a range of 500 miles. Vertical take-off and landing will eliminate the need for a runway, and the promise of full automation should ensure that pilots “will require substantially less training time” before they are allowed to get airborne.
Naturally there are no prices available yet, although it is anticipated that the TF-X will cost the same as a “high-end luxury” car. Bentley and Rolls-Royce, beware.
The Maverick Flying Car
At last, a flying car that really does exist right now. And what a simple concept it is too: primarily an off-road buggy, the Maverick Flying Car does away with complex folding wing systems and makes do with a parachute canopy and a rear rotor, bearing similarities with the traditional microlite. And at $94,000 (£75,000), it’s an absolute steal.
On the ground the Flying Car is agile and chuckable, and most at home on sandy surfaces. The 2.5-litre Subaru engine churns out 190hp and is good for a 0-60mph time of 3.9 seconds, ensuring there’s no lack of performance when you’re confined to the face of the Earth.
In the air you’ll have to make do with a top speed of 40mph - parachutes aren’t designed for speed - but with a 17-gallon tank the three-hour flying time will be more than enough to explore the local area. The only drawback is that there are no doors, so wherever you’re flying - or driving for that matter - you'd better hope the weather is kind.
Will the flying car ever really take off? Have your say in the comments section below...