A Look at Toyota's Flying Car Patent: Will it Become Reality?

Ever since George Jetson dropped his children off at school in the opening sequence of "The Jetsons" in 1962, people have been speculating about when an actual flying car might exist. Could Toyota Motor Corporation (NYSE: TM), the world's largest automaker, be the company that finally mass markets the futuristic device?

Toyota's Flying Car Patent Filing

The filed patent, number US20150246720, does not actually reference a flying car. Rather, it is for "an aerocar including a stackable wing and methods for morphing the stackable wing … atop the aerocar." The focus of the patent is on wings stacked on top of a regular automobile. How the wings would actually work, or how many other technical issues could be solved, is not addressed in the application. Unsurprisingly, Toyota has not made any public revelations about other technologies it might be developing.

It doesn't appear that Toyota, or any of the other major manufacturers, will be rolling out a flying car at any point in the near future. Rather, the automakers, along with some technology companies such as Google, seem to be focusing on self-driving cars at the moment. From 2009 to 2013, Toyota alone filed 73 patents related to autonomous driving.

Other Companies Developing Flying Cars

Smaller companies appear to be making progress towards flying cars. Two of the most talked about projects are those by Terrafugia from Maine and Slovakian-based AeroMobil.

Terrafugia, Latin for "escape the Earth," was founded in 2006 by three aerospace engineers who won MIT's $100k Business Plan Competition. They have successfully created and flown a street-legal flying car, called the Transition, although it is not yet commercialized. As its name implies, the Transition is meant to be a proof-of-concept product as the company moves toward production of its ultimate vision, the TF-X, a four-seat, hybrid electric, semi-autonomous, vertical takeoff and landing flying car. In December 2015, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorized Terrafugia to operate small unmanned aircraft systems in the TF-X configuration for research and development (R&D) purposes.

AeroMobil is a Slovakian company that is also working on a flying car aimed at the high-end market. The Aeromobil 3.0 is a sleek-looking combination car/airplane that will be capable of taking off and landing in short distances, over relatively rough terrain. It is also expected to be able to drive on standard roads at speeds up to 99 miles per hour. The company has indicated that it hopes to begin taking orders in 2016 and that the expected cost of the AeroMobil 3.0 will be somewhere between that of a sports car and a light sports aircraft – so, several hundred thousand dollars.

These projects are certainly exciting, and it is interesting to see that Toyota is at least working on elements of a flying car. However, it does not appear that flying Corollas – or any other flying cars, for that matter – will be available from local automobile dealerships in the near future.

Are Drones the Solution?

Many companies have indicated that they are working on concepts for delivery by unmanned drones in the very near future. Famously, Amazon.com has indicated that it wants to deliver packages through the air directly to customers' doorsteps.

If you think about it, is a drone carrying a package much different from a drone carrying a human being? With car companies focusing on unmanned vehicles on the roads and consumer goods companies focusing on unmanned vehicles in the air, perhaps the next revolution in travel will come from the combination of the two. In the meantime, keep dreaming of commuting to work in a flying saucer and dropping the kids off to school in space-age capsules.

Source: A Look at Toyota's Flying Car Patent: Will it Become Reality?