Flying cars: needed or possible? Part one

The arguments for flying cars are style, convenience and cost saving; the stuff of fiction for 100 years. Park a car and a plane together in your garage. If it converts automatically between modes you have the convenience of not getting to out fly through the airport. Vertical takeoff would mean no airport. However, pure electric cars and aircraft currently have very large, heavy batteries. Even with these, range is mostly only around 1-200 miles if the vehicle is affordable. Put them together and performance is worse.

As flying car developer Terrafugia said at a recent event, "for flying cars, there is conflict". Its own compromise is a hybrid sacrificing silence and day/night operation for range. Cruising speed will be 200 mph (322 km/h), along with a 500-mile (805 km) flight range. Two electric motors with two rotors allow the TF-X to move from a vertical to a horizontal position, and will be powered by a 300 horsepower engine. Thrust will be provided by a ducted fan.

Terrafugia says its aim is to provide "true door-to-door transportation" with the vehicle capable of being parked in a home garage like an ordinary car. The planned four-person TF-X will be semi-autonomous and use computer-controls so that passengers can simply type in a destination before taking off.

"The TF-X operator will have final say over whether an approved landing zone is actually a safe place in which to land, and they may abort the landing attempt at any time," the company says. For runway take-off, there are 5000 private airports in the US alone that are only 10% utilised but parking of cars and aircraft is easy with most of them so you can have an optimal aircraft and cars separately. No need for a flying car?

Below we show Terrafugia concepts.

Dezso Molnar in the USA is negative about all this. He redefines the problem in terms of a single person aircraft. He has two designs as he prepares to launch the world's first flying car race series. His Street Wing concept is a fully electric, solar-supported streetable airplane that needs a runway. Solar wings and possibly a propeller that reverse in a wind when the plane is parked are intended to provide independent charging where there is no electricity, not to increase range. It does not appear to fit in a garage or car parking space.

Secondly he has the G2 Gyrocycle, a race-focused, 200 mph three-wheel motorcycle rather than a car: it is already travelling on the street, and nearly ready to double as a gyrocopter when needed, thanks to folding blades but it is not a car.

Street Wing with wings that fold in for road travel.

Source Dezso Molnar

Caravella which was fund raising at the recent Maker Faire in San Francisco is shown below. It is also a single seater.

CaraVellair flying car concept by Caravella Aerospace at Maker Faire San Francisco May 2016.

Top image source: Terrafugia

Source: Flying cars: needed or possible? Part one

Japan Joins Flying-Car Race

By Mary Grady | May 30, 2016

image: Chunichi Shimbun

In case there aren't enough flying cars in the works, a team of 20 young engineers from Japan's auto industry now say they plan to have a true flying car ready to launch at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The design, called Skydrive, will be a small single-seat VTOL about the size of a compact car, with three wheels for driving on the ground and four rotors for flying. It's operated like a car, with a steering wheel and a gas pedal. The team raised about $25,000 on a crowdfunding site last year and built a one-fifth-size prototype, which they have flown successfully. "We hope to complete [the full-size vehicle] and get it ready for use as soon as possible," said Tsubasa Nakamura, the team leader. The vehicle could prove a life-saver in the event of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, Nakamura said, when normal travel by road is difficult.

The team says they plan for the vehicle to have a top flight speed of 62 mph, while traveling up to 32 feet above the ground. Besides the small test vehicle, the team also has been working with a full-size technology tester that has completed some flying maneuvers while tethered and operated remotely. In a timeline posted at the team's website, they say they plan to have a full-size manned prototype flying next year.

 

Source: Japan Joins Flying-Car Race

Woman on her way home from night out suffers life-changing injuries after being hit by a BIN sent flying when a speeding car mounted the pavement

Woman, 29, was injured while with a friend in Norwood, south London

Driver, in car believed to be a BMW, did not stop and rejoined the road

Police are hunting 'callous' motorist and have appealed for information 

By Alex Matthews For Mailonline

Published: 13:47 EST, 29 May 2016 | Updated: 01:10 EST, 30 May 2016

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A woman on her way home from a night out suffered life-changing injuries after she was hit by a bin that was flying through the air.

The 29-year-old was with a friend when a speeding car hit the bin after mounting a curb in Norwood High Street, south London, this morning.

The motorist did not stop to check on the woman, instead re-joining the road and speeding off.

Police are now hunting the driver of the dark coloured car, possibly a BMW, with a partial index number of 'SW'.

A woman on her way home from a night out suffered life-changing injuries after she was hit by a bin that was flying through the air on this street in South London

Police Constable Jake Good from Lambeth CID said: 'I am keen to hear from anyone who was in the vicinity of Norwood High Street and saw the incident..

'One woman has been left with what could possibly be life changing injuries and it is of paramount importance that we find the person responsible immediately.

'The two friends had simply been enjoying a night out and were on their way home when the incident occurred.

'It is believed that vehicle was travelling at some speed along the pavement and the women stood no chance of getting out of the way in time.

'The driver gave no thought to the victims and callously drove off from the scene without checking their condition.

'I am also keen to hear from anyone who recognises the description of the vehicle.

'Maybe you have seen a car of this type parked up with significant damage to it.

'If this is the case please do not hesitate in getting in contact with us. Any information no matter how small could assist us in tracing those responsible.'

A Met spokesperson said: 'Police are appealing for information and witnesses following a fail to stop collision in West Norwood in which two women were injured.

'Police were called by the London Ambulance Service shortly before 4.40am on Sunday, 29 May, to reports of a collision involving a car and two pedestrians in Norwood High Street

'Officers attended and found two 29-year-old women with injuries and both were taken to a south London hospital.

The motorist did not stop for the woman, continuing along the pavement on Norwood High Street before rejoining the road at the junction with Gipsy Road and Chapel Road (pictured)

'One of the injured women has since been discharged from hospital, while the other remains with injuries thought to be life changing.

'Detectives from Lambeth CID are investigating and are being assisted by colleagues from the Serious Collision Investigation Unit.

'At this early stage detectives believe that a dark coloured vehicle, possibly a BMW with a partial index number of 'SW' mounted the pavement at the junction with Rothschild Street.

'It drove along the pavement before colliding with some commercial bins and these b ins then hit the two women.

'Inquires are underway to establish whether at any point the vehicle was in collision with the victims.

'The vehicle failed to stop and continued along the pavement for some distance before rejoining the road at Norwood High Street at the junction with Gipsy Road and Chapel Road.

'It is believed the vehicle headed in the direction of Central Hill.

'No arrests have been made and inquires continue.' 

 

Source: Woman on her way home from night out suffers life-changing injuries after being hit by a BIN sent flying when a speeding car mounted the pavement

Cobalt Co50 Valkyrie: Personal Plane or Flying Car?

Prior generations did their best predict what future technology might look like. Sometimes they got it right — as with wrist radios or voice activated AI. Sometimes they were way off — calling on all-day food pills or hover boards that actually hovered without exploding.

If you want to take a hacky, stand-up comedy stab at the problem, the all-purpose gag is our total lack of flying cars. We were supposed to all have flying cars by now. To move past the problem, a small aviation company is offering a high-tech private aircraft that looks futuristic enough to take the sting out of the flying car malaise.

The Cobalt Co50 Valkyrie is now available for preordering and promises to be one of the fastest private, piston-driven aircraft on the market. An entirely "fly by wire" aircraft, the Cobalt Co50 Valkyrie seats five and can come bespoke if a would-be buyer wants more cargo space or weight stripped out for racing.

For early adopters, the Cobalt Co50 Valkyrie has a sticker price of $595,000. While you might see that number and scoff a little, "Well, I'll buy two!" in this direction, consider that this reporter could rattle off the names of five supercars that sell for more than double that price. While those cars are fast, none of them truly fly like the Cobalt Co50 Valkyrie.

As there are with said cars, there are versions of factory options or trim levels with the Cobalt Co50 Valkyrie. Air conditioning is another $20,000, and the touchy suggestion of an airframe parachute will add $45,000.

The Cobalt Co50 Valkyrie will arrive for sale in 2017, but those men of means willing to put the flying car bitterness behind them can pre-order now.

Source: Cobalt Co50 Valkyrie: Personal Plane or Flying Car?

Japanese engineers want to build a flying car to light the torch at the 2020 Olympics

A group of Japanese engineers have the long-term goal of building a flying car, and have set the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo as their target unveiling.

The outlandish project has been in the works since 2014 and is called SkyDrive.

In short it is a large drone, big enough to be able to take a seated human and able to drive along on terra firma as well as take to the skies at will.

Not only that, but the team behind the design hope to have it ready for the summer Olympics in Japan in 2020, with the final moments of the video showing a render of the SkyDrive rolling into the stadium before taking off to light the Olympic flame.

The most recent image on the firm's website does little to boost confidence in the viability of the project. Taken back in October 2015, it is captioned 'preparation for test flight', with no word on how that flight went. But given the lack of updates since, it may not have gone well.

However, there is plenty of hope in the renders in the video – and indeed on Cartivator's website, where one image shows an artist's impression of a motorway of the future complete with SkyDrives – that a world of flying cars might be with us one day.

© Irish Examiner Ltd. All rights reserved

Source: Japanese engineers want to build a flying car to light the torch at the 2020 Olympics

'Smart car' tech to get boost from US-Israel collaboration

Move over, flying cars. Lately, governments around the world have been getting serious finding a way to get "smart car" technologies out of the labs and behind the wheels of the average Joe and Jane, and self-driving automobiles are becoming a reality in pilot projects in a number of countries.

American and Israel officials have embarked on an initiative that will look to incorporate self-driving technology for use in both the public and private sector.

According to the Ministry of Transportation on Thursday, both the US and Israeli governments are embarking on an initiative that will invest $20 million toward the creation of a Netanya-based center, solely dedicated to the development of "autonomous" car technologies.

It will employ a total of 80 researchers, half Israeli and half American.

Part of the Memorandum of Cooperation, signed by Transportation Minister Israel Katz and US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx on Monday, will include advising on a planned "Center of Excellence" in Netanya, which along with the autonomous vehicle research, collaboration will include combatting safety issues, especially involving cyber security, as well as sharing information on how to partner public and private sectors together in the field.

Katz called the advancement toward self-driving cars "a substantial change" compared with the previous 100 years' worth of "incremental" progress. He said that the technology developed could provide "significant benefits to social welfare – saving lives, reducing crashes, congestion, fuel consumption and pollution, while increasing mobility for the disabled."

The innovation center Netanya, he said, "will position the city in the select group of leading cities in this field in the world."

Following Foxx's last visit to Israel in November, Israeli company Mobileye, which produces driver assistance technology and the US Department of Transportation partnered for the Smart City Challenge, in which one American city will get up to $40 million to integrate "smart car" technology into their public transportation networks. The seven finalist cities in the running are Pittsburg, PA, Columbus, OH, Austin, TX, Denver, CO, San Francisco, CA, Portland, OR and Kansas City, MO.

Source: 'Smart car' tech to get boost from US-Israel collaboration

Japanese engineers to create flying cars in time in time for Tokyo Olympics

A prototype of the flying car – measuring a fifth of the final size and fitted with adapted drone technology– was recently tested near Toyota city, hovering almost 10 feet off the ground, according to media reports.

"We hope to complete it and get it ready for use as soon as possible," Mr Nakamura told the Japan Times.

Mr Nakamura, who studied mechanical engineering before developing racing cars, launched the flying car project in 2014 by creating a small prototype using a toy motor.

After raising more than (2.6 million yen £16,000 (£16,000) via crowdfunding, he was able to build the first full-scale prototype last year.

Source: Japanese engineers to create flying cars in time in time for Tokyo Olympics

The future of transport? From China’s traffic-busting ‘uber-bus’ to flying cars (VIDEOS)

China has unveiled an impressive futuristic 'uber-bus' that can carry 1,200 passengers, travels above other vehicles, and aims to end the nation's notorious traffic jams.

The Transit Elevated Bus (TEB) is essentially a metro system that hovers above cars and was designed to maximize the use of road space.

The revolutionary mode of transport was revealed to the public at the China Beijing International High-Tech Expo over the weekend.

Designers in China claim the innovative transport system should be both cost-effective and environmentally friendly. The elevated high-speed bus is powered by electricity, which is supplemented by solar energy generated by the roof panels.

"With a carrying capacity of 1,200 people at a time, the TEB has the same functions as the subway while its cost of construction is less than one fifth of the subway," senior project engineer Bai Zhiming told CCTV News.

Shenzhen Huashi Future Parking Equipment, the company behind the TEB, say construction can be completed in a year. Trial operations are due to start in Qinhuangdao City, in north China's Hebei Province, in the second half of 2016.

China's TEB is just one of a number cutting edge developments set to transform the future of the transport industry and which leave Doc Brown's time-travelling DeLorean looking somewhat mundane.

AeroMobil and Terrafugia are among the companies vying for take-off with their flying cars in 2017.

'Lilium,' the first-ever vertical takeoff and landing aircraft for personal use, is expected to be available from 2018. It is currently being developed by a start-up company in the European Space Agency's business incubator.

Meanwhile, billionaire Elon Musk plans to introduce a 'fifth form of transportation', with testing for the high-speed Hyperloop scheduled for 2020.

READ MORE: 0 to 400mph in 2 seconds? Russian Railways eyes supersonic Hyperloop technology

The Hyperloop could take passengers on a 700 mph (1,126 km/h) journey in capsules propelled by magnets between three European cities in just minutes.

Source: The future of transport? From China's traffic-busting 'uber-bus' to flying cars (VIDEOS)

Dezso Molnar interview Part 4: My two current flying car projects

In part four of our extended interview with serial inventor and flying car advocate Dezso Molnar, Dezso puts his money where his mouth is. After giving us his philosophy on flying cars, and reviewing his favorite and least favorite existing designs, Dezso speaks about the two flying car designs he's currently working on as he prepares to launch the world's first flying car race series. The Street Wing concept is a fully electric, solar-supported streetable airplane, and the G2 Gyrocycle is a race-focused, 200 mph three-wheeler that's already rolling on the street, and nearly ready to fly.

The Street Wing electric flying car

For the electric, I call it the Street Wing. Because of the power loading requirements of gyroplanes and quadcopters and vertical takeoff, I'm focusing on an aircraft with wings and best possible range.

It's going to be a trike, which fits the motorcycle category on the ground. You'll be able to drive it down the street no problem. It'll have steering front wheels, which harkens back to the Zuck Planemobile. So the front wheels steer and the rear wheel is powered and rigid in its alignment.

When you're driving, that allows you to steer down the road and have stable control as opposed to one wheel in the front and two in the back like a Cessna 172. That's less stable. If you're going down a hill and taking a turn, you're gonna fall over.

The other thing about front wheel steering, if you're flying and landing in a crosswind, you can point the wheels down the runway … When the back wheel hits the ground, it will tend to bring the rear end straight. On a traditional tail dragger, the wind can blow a castering rear wheel around and cause a ground loop.

Status of the Street Wing project

I've started working with Craig Calfee again; he's put together an electric powerplant that's highly reliable, and we will create an open source vehicle based on it. I'll be working with engineers in Brazil to lock in the airframe design and wind tunnel testing. Alex Karafilovski has cut loose on some conceptual drawings that capture the overall approach of the machine and I like where it's headed.

We will emerge with a vehicle to place a stake in the ground to say "look, here's one new way to get around."

You'll be able to drive on the ground, fly it through the air, and the goal is to travel for the rest of our lives without buying fuel. That's possible with existing technology and equipment.

Hiding the wings

I'm gonna carry wings with me, I'll fold them up in the best possible way. Because the aircraft is built for best range, it's stall speed will be too fast to qualify as an ultralight aircraft. My intention is to additionally make an ultralight version, so others can drive and fly without a license in areas where that's allowed. But first, I want a vehicle to travel long distances with the battery power on board, that's fairly quick in the air and on the ground, and can fly over populated areas.

Experimental home-built aircraft can do that, because the operating limitations, if it's so determined by the inspector, will allow you to fly anywhere that you determine you can make a safe landing. And that can include over populated areas.

FAA Part 103 states ultralights are restricted from flying over populated areas. So if I want to fly from some city where they have an airport in town, to an airport 30 or 40 miles away inside a different city, I'll be able to do that with this first generation Street Wing.

Electric powertrain with thin film solar charging

We'll use an electric motor and a battery, and I'd like to eventually supplement the power of the batteries with solar panels, more for recharging completely off the grid than for extending flights.

That could simply mean I travel with a flexible panel folded up, inside the aircraft and deploy it on the ground or hang it over the wings, or I could have something that's permanently attached to the wings or fuselage like Eric Raymond has been doing forever. Or perhaps use the wind to spin the propeller when it's sitting on the ground, and use the propeller to generate power, or I simply plug the thing in to a grid when we're on it.

Gallium arsenide solar panels, originally developed for the Soviet space program, are in production and provide one watt of power for one gram of weight. They actually outperform a fully charged lithium-ion battery by weight.

The AeroVironment Puma drone has been using these cells. Eric Raymond's Sunseeker Duo has been flying 12-hour flights in Italy. It's a two-seat aircraft using solar panels on the wings. It's not my objective to stay in the air for 12 hours, I personally don't like flying 12 hours at a time, although I used to in the Air Force with mid-air refueling. I've done 14, 16 hour flights, it's a drag.

For explorations off the grid with with solar panels only, I want to fly for a while, and then be able to drive. With charged batteries, you can do a flight of an hour, and then you have to land and wait for two or three hours for the solar panels to recharge them; eventually the thing will recharge itself and you're able to do another flight, or a long drive.

Flying uses a lot of amps, but when you're driving slow on the road, let's say you're exploring across Africa or Australia; it's easier to do that, because your aerodynamic drag is really low. This is a wheel driven vehicle on the ground and a propeller driven vehicle in the air.

Land speed estimations

We can run the numbers, but I would guess this first design could have a sustainable 30 mph (48 km/h) driving speed on solar only. This has been done before. Solar Challenge cars have been racing across Australia above highway speeds for years.

The empty weight will be about 300 lbs. About the same as those solar cars, and it doesn't much matter what the weight is, unless you're going up a hill. If you're going across level surfaces, what matters most is aerodynamic drag. If you're below 12 mph you effectively have no drag. That's about the speed we taxi at airports, and to taxi to the runway we can drive the rear wheel and reserve battery power for flight.

For racing, we will simply swap batteries on the ground like any race car gets fuel in the pits and jump back into the action.

My guess is the first generation Street Wing will be able to top out close to 70 mph on the road.

It's a use of existing technology as opposed to proposing applications for what does not. I try never to do what NASA does and some other guys, kick everything out seven years and say "seven years from now we'll have this, or seven years from now we'll have that." I mean, we have this stuff today, so we might as well use it.

The bottom line is that the travel cost is expected to drop from about $100 an hour to fly an airplane, to closer to $1. A substantial change in the economics.

The Marcos Pontes connection – open sourcing the Street Wing

I'll work with the Marcos Pontes Foundation in positioning the Street Wing development - it's an honest, benevolent project, I'm not keeping IP or writing patents. We want to create a collaborative open source project that will consistently upgrade these vehicles so that more people can fly affordably. Electric motors cost less to operate than gas motors, and they'll be able to park away from airports, so no hangar fees.

A lot more people can fly electrics for a buck an hour instead of a hundred dollars an hour as it stands today for a Cessna or similar.

Marcos is the only Brazilian to fly to space. He's very interested in promoting aviation and space flight to the people in his country who helped support his flight ten years ago. Most people in Brazil will never get to fly to outer space, so we have teamed up again to design this new aircraft. People can have an affordable, simple aircraft, that'll give them a certain advantage, and fulfil Marco's mission to help kids who want to fly. He was one of them!

On the Gyrocycle projects

The Street Wing is my primary focus of development right now, and the gyrocycle is really mainly a machine for racing. I'm looking for sponsors right now that have a solid history of racing vehicles that want to get involved with the gyrocycle. It's the crusher. I'm expecting 200 mph on the ground and close to 100 in the air with that one.

The objective is to make it robust and quick to switch between drive and flight mode in the pits and I have a hundred ideas on how to do that.

The first bike I built and flew was the GT, it uses the Rotax 650 single cylinder engine, and is able to drive down the road It was licensed, registered, smog checked and insured on the road and in the air. We flew it back in 2005 for the first time. It flew on the first attempt, and every other time we wanted to fly, it worked.

Then we got pressured into designing a two seat version, which was a really bad idea because there were no adequate engines. The power loading requires about 183 horsepower for the weight of the vehicle as envisioned in the flight domain. If it's a 100 mph road vehicle, and it can fly two people for 100 miles, and you want to fly at 100 mph, which is what marketing people always want to do, everything in hundreds, then the thing needs 183 horsepower, which doesn't exist in the motorcycle world – at least, it didn't in 2005.

There was no suitable motor at the time to fit the power requirements and light sport category. But we spent a lot of time at the insistence of people who were funding things to develop a two-seat flyer. That killed the company, it killed the project.

Rebirth of the G2 Gyrocycle

Now I'm doubling back, and I'm continuing work on what was a two seat ground test vehicle. The G2 Gyrocycle is monstrous, it's got a very robust GSX-R1000 engine. It's an incredibly good bike on the road. It's my first choice – if I were to ride across the United States today, I would take the G2 because it has an extremely reliable and positive steering Piaggio MP3 front end. It has a nice cage on it; I've crashed it a dozen times but never had a scratch on me. I have a full harness.

I sit in a recumbent position with a big back seat to store all my tools and luggage. It's long, but you have no idea when you're driving it. I worked with a small team to make it. F1 designer John McQuillam, Paul Taylor, Craig Calfee and Cosmonaut Marcos Pontes. It took the "Innovation" award at the Quail last year and hasn't even flown yet. Richard Hatfield from Lightning calls it the Holy Grail.

As a gyroplane, it's long, which is great, it will give me pitch stability in flight. The MP3 front end is a stock part we installed to test two front wheels, I wanted to see how it behaved on the road. When I go to fly it, I'll replace the MP3 with a single front wheel to reduce the weight. It's light enough to fly now, but I'll take the lightest possible approach and put a Norman Hossack-style front end on it.

Why a gyroplane?

Gyroplanes are extremely powerful lifters. The gross weight capacity of this engine and rotor blades will be well above 1000 pounds. I'll set it up to fly with one person. It's already a great two-seater on the ground.

I regularly fly my trainer gyroplane with a 110 horsepower engine on it, and it climbs so fast it scares me. You don't want to hang on the prop or you will unload the rotor blade and slow it down. This G2 could fly with the Gixxer motor derated; not at full power.

The red propeller installed on the G2 is extremely short and only for ground testing the propeller transmission. When I go to fly it, I'll install much longer flight blades. It rolls at 80 mph with the red prop and we have completed ground testing of the transmission.

One reason for having the layout with the engine in the back is for the cooling wind of the propeller. It's also a safety thing. If the motorcycle engine shells out, parts will go out the back of the vehicle and not through the propeller like on pusher gyros, which can break off a prop blade in flight. A gyro can autorotate and land without an engine, but there is a short and dangerous period when an out-of-balance propeller is spinning, and can rip your aircraft apart in flight before you pull the power. You can vibrate an aircraft apart, so it's ideal to not let things go through propellers.

With the gyrocycle, the propeller diameter can be very large, since the tips of the blade aren't restricted by any aircraft structure, and they're out in clean air. That's the reason for running the fuselage thru the prop. The design is flexible, so more powerful engines can swing a bigger prop. Engine power all boils down to thrust, and big diameter props are the most efficient way to get thrust. I'm expecting good performance out of the G2.

Don't forget to check out the three other parts to this one long interview. In part 1, Dezso talks about his origins as an inventor, rocket scientist and musician. In part 2, he gives us a different way of thinking about flying cars. In part 3, he dissects his favorite and least favorite existing flying car designs. And stay tuned for the final part of our interview, in which he reveals the world's first flying car race series, and tells us what a flying car race will look like. That's coming up in the next week or so!

Source: Dezso Molnar interview Part 4: My two current flying car projects

With quake disruptions in mind, Aichi team working on flying car

Young automotive engineers working in the Mikawa district of Aichi Prefecture are developing a flying car.

Set to be completed in 2020, the flying vehicle is expected to be used in such cases as natural disasters. The Kumamoto earthquakes last month made the group even more determined to finish their work.

"We hope to complete it and get it ready for use as soon as possible," said group leader Tsubasa Nakamura, 31, of Nisshin, Aichi Prefecture.

Last month, the group conducted a trial run on the grounds of an elementary school that has closed down in the city of Toyota. The propellers sent pebbles and sand flying as the prototype, which measures 30 cm by 60 cm, hovered 3 meters above the ground.

The group repeated tests to make sure the car rises steadily.

The prototype, one-fifth the size of the actual flying car, is a modified drone that can be controlled remotely.

Apart from the difference in size, the prototype has the exact same structure as the actual model. Made of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic, the three-wheel car has a motor and four propellers on each corner.

The group has created a full-size prototype, but since it is expensive and they cannot afford to make any mistakes, they are using the small prototype for basic tests.

Nakamura gathered other engineers he met through his work and established the group CART!VATOR in 2012.

The group consists of 20 members from Aichi, Tokyo and Shizuoka prefectures.

The fundraising and commercialization of the product are done mainly by members in Tokyo.

However, Nakamura said he decided to use Mikawa as the base for developing the car as "there are many engineers here and Mikawa has a great environment for creating new products."

Nakamura has loved cars since he was a child. He studied mechanical engineering in Keio University and was involved in a project to develop racing cars.

He began developing a flying car in 2014 to present "a new form of cars for the next generation," starting with a small and simple prototype that uses a toy motor to run the propellers.

Using ¥2.6 million he collected through crowdfunding, Nakamura built a full-scale prototype flying car at the beginning of 2015 with the help of an engineer from Kyoto.

The prototype runs on a motor used for gliders and has successfully stayed 1 meter above ground for four seconds in one of the tests.

The actual car will run on a motor used in electric vehicles and the group plans to change the material of the car from aluminum to CFRP, which will reduce its weight from 180 kg to 100 kg.

Nakamura said the main advantage of the flying car is its ability to take off and land vertically, which means it does not need a runway.

The car seats one and has a steering wheel, gas pedal and brake pedal so it can be driven like a normal car.

The group aims to build a "dream car" that can run on a normal road and take off directly for a drive in the sky.

Landslides, fallen trees and collapsed structures blocked many roads when the Kumamoto earthquakes struck.

"A flying car will be able to help quickly with the rescue mission and delivery of supplies," said Nakamura.

"It's an important technology that can save lives, so I hope to get this finished as soon as possible," he added.

This section, appearing Tuesdays, features topics and issues from the Chubu region covered by the Chunichi Shimbun. The original article was published on May 10.

Source: With quake disruptions in mind, Aichi team working on flying car

A personal flying vehicle for skipping traffic on short trips

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Our Prototypes column introduces new vehicle concepts and presents visuals from designers who illustrate the ideas. Some of them will be extensions of existing concepts, others will be new, some will be production ready, and others really far-fetched.

The concept

The Solexa is a personal flying vehicle (PFV) concept that uses a fuel cell to power six motorized fans. With an autonomy of 20 minutes, it could be used to travel across the city, explore the backcountry, conduct surveillance or even be used as a recreational vehicle.

Images provided by Charles Bombardier

The background

A few months ago, I was contacted by Pete Bitar from AirBuoyant. We started discussing a PFV, and I sent him a few sketches of my Vexil concept. Pete is currently working on several flying prototypes and he suggested inverting the design of the Vexil to increase stability, amongst other things. His input helped Sebastian Campos Möller and me give birth to the Solexa concept.

How it works

The Solexa would be powered by six electric motors, each driving a rotor. In case of emergency, the Solexa could still be able to land safely by using only three of its six fans.

Instead of ion-lithium batteries, the vehicle would use a compact fuel cell and high octane gasoline as fuel. Because gasoline stores around 25 times more specific energy than ion-lithium batteries, it would make sense to use fuel cells until battery technology improves. With a 200-pound payload, the Solexa could remain aloft for 20 minutes.

Most of the flying would be done by the Solexa's onboard computer. The pilot would simply decide where he wanted to go by choosing a destination from a list. The Solexa would rise to a pre-set altitude (max 30 metres), set a flight path, and transmit its location in real time to low altitude air traffic control.

I imagine if we allow drones to ro am over our heads, cities will soon need to develop computerized air traffic systems to monitor and control each flight. You will likely need a license too. Of course, the Solexa would feature an override mode in case the pilot needed to change its flight course rapidly.

What it's used for

The Solexa could become the flying car we all have been dreaming about. It's not to big and could transport humans around the city at low altitude. Some people would probably use them all the time like air taxis. Because they are small, they would not be used in windy conditions, but nevertheless you could still hop on one on a clear day and travel a few kilometres to skip downtown traffic.

The designer

The Solexa concept was developed in collaboration with Sebastian Campos Möller, an award-winning industrial designer from Mexico. Möller graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design and specializes in 3D and concept development for human-centered products. He also produced the concept images for the Vexil laser recharged drone and the Paragon powersport kit for teenagers.

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Source: A personal flying vehicle for skipping traffic on short trips

Trending @ 10: Uber Tests Self-Driving Cars in Pittsburgh!

WELCOME TO THE FUTURE, PEOPLE! I always equated today's Trending @ 10 with flying cars, something people always thought would happen, but probably never would. BUT IT'S HAPPENING.

Uber is testing its first-ever SELF-DRIVING car in Pittsburgh!!! According to roadandtrack.com, they opened the Advanced Technologies Center here in Pittsburgh last year, where they've been developing these cars – and it's finally hit the road for a test drive!

The car itself has a bunch of super-techy sensors on top, and the first ride went REALLY well! According to the Tribune-Review, it drove across the 31st Street Bridge and around the North Side…and it even stopped for a goose crossing the street! A GOOSE! This thing is a better driver than me.

Seriously, though, if this really takes off…could you imagine getting into the backseat of a car with no human driver? Like "Hey!…nobody?" What a time to be alive!

Source: Trending @ 10: Uber Tests Self-Driving Cars in Pittsburgh!

Self-flying taxi to appear in Tokyo by 2020

Tokyo is planning to launch self-flying taxi by the Olympic Games of 2020. The government has already approved that project.

The launch of cars without drivers will be possible only given several conditions. First, the transportation company will be fully liable for any accident involving the self-flying car. Second, each car should be equipped with an additional route tracking system.

The Japanese government is going to make relevant changes in its legislation for the implementation of this project, Mir writes. 

Source: Self-flying taxi to appear in Tokyo by 2020

The flying machine in your back garden

BBC Autos | Matthew Phenix | Saturday, May 21, 2016

It's clean, quiet and easy to operate: Can the battery powered Lilium personal jet at last fulfil the promise of the flying car?

A German startup called Lilium Aviation is working on a 100 per cent electric short-haul private jet that may at last fulfil the promise of the flying car.

The company was founded in 2015 by a quartet of engineers and doctoral students from the Technical University of Munich and nurtured in a European Space Agency-funded business incubator.

"Our goal is to develop an aircraft for use in everyday life," says one of Lilium's founders, CEO Daniel Wiegand.

As the Lilium team sees it, the problem with personal aviation is airports, which are expensive to operate and utilise, and usually sit well away from city centres, negating their use as commuter hubs.

"We are going for a plane that can take off and land vertically and does not need the complex and expensive infrastructure of an airport," says Wiegand.

The company's aircraft concept promises flight without the flight infrastructure. It will require an open space of just 225 square metres - about the size of a typical back garden - to take off and land.

The Lilium Jet can cruise as far as 500km (310mi) at a very brisk 400kph (248mph), and reach an altitude of 3km (9,900ft).

And it recharges overnight from a standard household outlet.

Yes, it is functionally similar to a helicopter, but the Lilium Jet presents some distinct advantages over traditional rotorcraft flying machines.

For one, its battery powered ducted fans are significantly quieter - and cleaner - than the fuel-burning turbine and piston engines in helicopters.

And, significantly, because the mid-flight failure of a helicopter's single engine could be catastrophic, they are expensive to engineer and build, and they require meticulous daily maintenance.

Read the full article here

Source: The flying machine in your back garden

Self-flying taxi to appear in Tokyo by 2020

Tokyo is planning to launch self-flying taxi by the Olympic Games of 2020. The government has already approved that project.

The launch of cars without drivers will be possible only given several conditions. First, the transportation company will be fully liable for any accident involving the self-flying car. Second, each car should be equipped with an additional route tracking system.

The Japanese government is going to make relevant changes in its legislation for the implementation of this project, Mir writes. 

Source: Self-flying taxi to appear in Tokyo by 2020

The flying machine in your back garden

A German startup called Lilium Aviation is working on a 100% electric short-haul private jet that may at last fulfill the promise of the flying car.

The company was founded in 2015 by a quartet of engineers and doctoral students from the Technical University of Munich and nurtured in a European Space Agency-funded business incubator. "Our goal is to develop an aircraft for use in everyday life," says one of Lilium's founders, CEO Daniel Wiegand.

As the Lilium team sees it, the problem with personal aviation is airports, which are expensive to operate and utilise, and usually sit well away from city centres, negating their use as commuter hubs. "We are going for a plane that can take off and land vertically and does not need the complex and expensive infrastructure of an airport," says Wiegand.

The company's aircraft concept promises flight without the flight infrastructure. It will require an open space of just 225 square metres — about the size of a typical back garden — to take off and land. The Lilium Jet can cruise as far as 500km (310mi) at a very brisk 400kph (248mph), and reach an altitude of 3km (9,900ft). And it recharges overnight from a standard household outlet.

Yes, it is functionally similar to a helicopter, but the Lilium Jet presents some distinct advantages over traditional rotorcraft flying machines. For one, its battery powered ducted fans are significantly quieter — and cleaner — than the fuel-burning turbine and piston engines in helicopters. And, significantly, because the mid-flight failure of a helicopter's single engine could be catastrophic, they are expensive to engineer and build, and they require meticulous daily maintenance. The Lilium jet, however, uses 36 tiny ducted fan motors: 12 on each wing and 6 each in two swivelling nacelles that emerge from nose, producing a total of 435 horsepower. The propulsion system (including the electric fans, the 320kW battery pa ck and the power controllers) is designed for redundancy; the failure of one fan — or several — won't necessitate an emergency landing.

And, of course, helicopter-pilot training — which includes extensive schooling in safe-landing techniques after an engine failure — is exhaustive and expensive, consuming dozens of hours and costing upwards of £30,000. The Lilium jet, in contrast, will be classified as a Light Sport Aircraft for two occupants, for which licensing requires a scant 20 to 30 hours of training and usually runs less than £6,000. The trickiest part of flying a Lilium — those vertical take-offs and landings — will be handled by an autonomous control system, similar to the planned EHang 184 four-rotor personal drone and the Terrafugia TF-X.

Naturally, such accessibility has a few trade-offs. The Lilium Jet's LSA classification limits its operation to uncongested airspace during daytime hours, and only in fair weather. And even with the aircraft's p romise of quiet, emissions-free operation, it may be a while before aviation authorities allow vertical take-offs and landings — even computer-guided ones — from the Joneses' back garden. And unlike such road-ready vehicles as the Terrafugia, the Dutch-made PAL-V One and the Aeromobil from Slovakia, the wheel-less Lilium Jet is strictly a flying machine.

And yet, compared with the wildly complex Terrafugia, the Lilium Jet is a remarkably simple machine, and it is that simplicity that has put it on the fast track toward series production. The company has successfully demonstrated the concept with a 25-kilogram flying prototype, and is presently crafting a full-size version. Lilium plans to have a production model ready by the stroke of midnight on 31 Dec 2018.

The future is coming soon, but you still have time to install a windsock atop the garage.

If you would like to comment on this or anything else you have seen on BBC Autos, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter. And while you're at it, join the BBC Autos community on Instagram.

And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called "If You Only Read 6 Things This Week". A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Autos, Future, Earth, Culture, Capital and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.

Source: The flying machine in your back garden

Still no flying cars?

"I never think of the future - it comes soon enough." — Albert Einstein

As we careen through May with graduation and the end of the school year in sight, many think about the next steps in their life.

Some people even get paid to try to predict the future.

That would be a very tough job. It's always easier to write about the past and point out where the futurists went wrong.

I've been part of a couple discussions in the past month about the future. Local elected officials try to plan and predict what may be coming so our communities can harness growth without having to play (and pay for) catching up to what is happening.

Technology often plays a major role in the way we live our lives. I consider the Apollo moon landings one of the major technological accomplishments that has occurred during my life.

Did you know that the average smartphone of today has more processing power than the spacecraft that landed on the Moon? The older I get, the more I marvel that we made it there and back safely.

We often develop technologies before understanding the social and ethical complications that will arise as unintended consequences from their use. It is estimated that in 2018 the first self driving cars will be available for the public.

While I am still waiting for the flying cars I was promised as a child, futurists theorize that the preschoolers of today will never have need of a driver's license, thanks to automated cars, piloted by global positioning systems.

Let's take the next leap of logic. If cars are automated and software companies like Uber and Lyft can offer a ride with a few swipes of your cell phone, would you even need to own a car?

An estimated 1.2 million people die each year in car accidents worldwide. Currently, one accident occurs every 100,000 km; with autonomous driving that will drop to one accident in 10 million km. That will save a million lives each year.

With fewer accidents, the business model of insurance companies will change as well.

In addition to the 1.2 million people that would have died annually in car accidents, life spans continue to grow. Right now, the average life span increases by 3 months per year. Four years ago, the life span was 79 years, now it's 80 years. Futurists estimate that the rate of life span increases will grow as well and by 2036, the rate of increase may be more than a year per year.

Sure, we will live longer, but how will we deal with aging and the challenges of overpopulation?

By next year, the Tricorder Xprize competition will be consumer testing a hand held medical diagnostic device named after the gadget used in "Star Trek" that will be able to "accurately diagnose 13 health conditions (12 diseases and the absence of conditions) and capture five real-time health vital signs, independent of a health care worker or facility, and in a way that provides a compelling consumer experience."

Doctors beware, the smartphone is coming for you!

Artificial intelligence presents other challenges. IBM's Watson now gives legal advice (so far for more or less basic stuff) within seconds, with 90% accuracy compared with 70% accuracy when done by humans.

As always, I welcome your comments. You can reach me by email at tstangl@theameryfreepress.com, telephone 715-268-8101 or write me at P.O. Box 424, Amery, WI, 54001.

Thanks for reading. I'll keep in touch. Feel free to do the same.

Source: Still no flying cars?

The flying machine in your back garden

A German startup called Lilium Aviation is working on a 100% electric short-haul private jet that may at last fulfill the promise of the flying car.

The company was founded in 2015 by a quartet of engineers and doctoral students from the Technical University of Munich and nurtured in a European Space Agency-funded business incubator. "Our goal is to develop an aircraft for use in everyday life," says one of Lilium's founders, CEO Daniel Wiegand.

As the Lilium team sees it, the problem with personal aviation is airports, which are expensive to operate and utilise, and usually sit well away from city centres, negating their use as commuter hubs. "We are going for a plane that can take off and land vertically and does not need the complex and expensive infrastructure of an airport," says Wiegand.

The company's aircraft concept promises flight without the flight infrastructure. It will require an open space of just 225 square metres — about the size of a typical back garden — to take off and land. The Lilium Jet can cruise as far as 500km (310mi) at a very brisk 400kph (248mph), and reach an altitude of 3km (9,900ft). And it recharges overnight from a standard household outlet.

Yes, it is functionally similar to a helicopter, but the Lilium Jet presents some distinct advantages over traditional rotorcraft flying machines. For one, its battery powered ducted fans are significantly quieter — and cleaner — than the fuel-burning turbine and piston engines in helicopters. And, significantly, because the mid-flight failure of a helicopter's single engine could be catastrophic, they are expensive to engineer and build, and they require meticulous daily maintenance. The Lilium jet, however, uses 36 tiny ducted fan motors: 12 on each wing and 6 each in two swivelling nacelles that emerge from nose, producing a total of 435 horsepower. The propulsion system (including the electric fans, the 320kW battery pa ck and the power controllers) is designed for redundancy; the failure of one fan — or several — won't necessitate an emergency landing.

And, of course, helicopter-pilot training — which includes extensive schooling in safe-landing techniques after an engine failure — is exhaustive and expensive, consuming dozens of hours and costing upwards of £30,000. The Lilium jet, in contrast, will be classified as a Light Sport Aircraft for two occupants, for which licensing requires a scant 20 to 30 hours of training and usually runs less than £6,000. The trickiest part of flying a Lilium — those vertical take-offs and landings — will be handled by an autonomous control system, similar to the planned EHang 184 four-rotor personal drone and the Terrafugia TF-X.

Naturally, such accessibility has a few trade-offs. The Lilium Jet's LSA classification limits its operation to uncongested airspace during daytime hours, and only in fair weather. And even with the aircraft's p romise of quiet, emissions-free operation, it may be a while before aviation authorities allow vertical take-offs and landings — even computer-guided ones — from the Joneses' back garden. And unlike such road-ready vehicles as the Terrafugia, the Dutch-made PAL-V One and the Aeromobil from Slovakia, the wheel-less Lilium Jet is strictly a flying machine.

And yet, compared with the wildly complex Terrafugia, the Lilium Jet is a remarkably simple machine, and it is that simplicity that has put it on the fast track toward series production. The company has successfully demonstrated the concept with a 25-kilogram flying prototype, and is presently crafting a full-size version. Lilium plans to have a production model ready by the stroke of midnight on 31 Dec 2018.

The future is coming soon, but you still have time to install a windsock atop the garage.

If you would like to comment on this or anything else you have seen on BBC Autos, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter. And while you're at it, join the BBC Autos community on Instagram.

And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called "If You Only Read 6 Things This Week". A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Autos, Future, Earth, Culture, Capital and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.

Source: The flying machine in your back garden

Flying cars? This German startup hopes to get users up in the air by 2018

 

Science fiction has been predicting the popularization of the flying car for decades: from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, George Jetson's flying-saucer shaped aerocar, to airspeeders in the Star Wars franchise.

And a German startup is the latest company hoping to bring that dream to reality.

Lilum is promising to rollout its fully electric, ultralight, two-seater, personal jet by January 2018.

 The egg-shaped plane is said to combine the benefits of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, in that it will be able to take off and land "from almost anywhere," because it will require an open and flat area of just 15 metres by 15 metres.

"Our goal is to develop an aircraft for use in everyday life," Daniel Wiegand, one of the company's four founders and CEO, said in a press release.

"We are going for a plane that can take off and land vertically, and does not need the complex and expensive infrastructure of an airport."  

Although the Lilum Jet takes off and lands like a helicopter, it uses swiveling engines to reach speeds of up to 400 kilometres an hour. It also has a range of 500 km.

The company hopes the aircraft can open up the traffic "bottlenecks" created by airports, especially from short-haul flights.

Unlike conventional aircraft, the Lilum Jet can be used in an urban environment, because it doesn't require a massive landing tarmac and its electric, ducted fan engines produce less noise pollution.

In comparison, the company said helicopters are very noisy, difficult to fly and have no backup in case of rotor failure, which makes them expensive to "build and maintain."

Lilum said its craft's batteries, engines and controllers are all redundant, making it a "much safer" option.

The Lilum Jet is also classified as a light sport aircraft, meaning the pilot's licence requires 20 hours training, which it compares to acquiring a driver's permit.

The company promises the aircraft is easy to fly thanks to its fully computer-assisted control system, which aids the pilot during takeoff and landing.

Its battery can also be recharged from any wall plug.

However, the craft isn't without its limitations.

It's designed only to be flown in good weather conditions in uncongested airspace in the daylight.

The startup, which was founded in February 2015 by four engineers from the Technical University of Munich, has already created several scale, 25-kilogram prototypes. 

The venture initially received funding by the European Union and has received support through the European Space Agency's business incubation centre in Bavaria, Germany.

"The half-size prototype is already flying and now under test. The full-size unmanned prototype is planned for this summer," said Thorsten Rudolph, CEO of AZO, which manages the ESA's Bavaria incubator.

"We are helping the Lilium team to turn their idea into a viable business. They are the aircraft experts, and we provide the expertise on how to make a business out of their dream."

The company, which has also received backing from a venture-capital investor, is planning its first manned flight in 2017, and hopes initial production on the aircraft will be begin in 2018, with serial production to follow after.

The goal is to offer the Lilum Jet at a price-point that will make it an affordable transportation option for a wide range of consumers. It hopes to offer the vehicle at a much lower price than similar-sized aircraft, with reduced running costs.

 "In the longer term, our target is to build an aircraft that not only the super-rich can afford, and that can make private air transportation possible for a much wider number of people," said Wiegand.

"With the concept of taking off and landing almost everywhere, we could see that one day our plane will be used for quick and daily transportation almost like a car today."

Source: Flying cars? This German startup hopes to get users up in the air by 2018

The flying machine in your back garden

A German startup called Lilium Aviation is working on a 100% electric short-haul private jet that may at last fulfill the promise of the flying car.

The company was founded in 2015 by a quartet of engineers and doctoral students from the Technical University of Munich and nurtured in a European Space Agency-funded business incubator. "Our goal is to develop an aircraft for use in everyday life," says one of Lilium's founders, CEO Daniel Wiegand.

As the Lilium team sees it, the problem with personal aviation is airports, which are expensive to operate and utilise, and usually sit well away from city centres, negating their use as commuter hubs. "We are going for a plane that can take off and land vertically and does not need the complex and expensive infrastructure of an airport," says Wiegand.

The company's aircraft concept promises flight without the flight infrastructure. It will require an open space of just 225 square metres — about the size of a typical back garden — to take off and land. The Lilium Jet can cruise as far as 500km (310mi) at a very brisk 400kph (248mph), and reach an altitude of 3km (9,900ft). And it recharges overnight from a standard household outlet.

Yes, it is functionally similar to a helicopter, but the Lilium Jet presents some distinct advantages over traditional rotorcraft flying machines. For one, its battery powered ducted fans are significantly quieter — and cleaner — than the fuel-burning turbine and piston engines in helicopters. And, significantly, because the mid-flight failure of a helicopter's single engine could be catastrophic, they are expensive to engineer and build, and they require meticulous daily maintenance. The Lilium jet, however, uses 36 tiny ducted fan motors: 12 on each wing and 6 each in two swivelling nacelles that emerge from nose, producing a total of 435 horsepower. The propulsion system (including the electric fans, the 320kW battery pa ck and the power controllers) is designed for redundancy; the failure of one fan — or several — won't necessitate an emergency landing.

And, of course, helicopter-pilot training — which includes extensive schooling in safe-landing techniques after an engine failure — is exhaustive and expensive, consuming dozens of hours and costing upwards of £30,000. The Lilium jet, in contrast, will be classified as a Light Sport Aircraft for two occupants, for which licensing requires a scant 20 to 30 hours of training and usually runs less than £6,000. The trickiest part of flying a Lilium — those vertical take-offs and landings — will be handled by an autonomous control system, similar to the planned EHang 184 four-rotor personal drone and the Terrafugia TF-X.

Naturally, such accessibility has a few trade-offs. The Lilium Jet's LSA classification limits its operation to uncongested airspace during daytime hours, and only in fair weather. And even with the aircraft's p romise of quiet, emissions-free operation, it may be a while before aviation authorities allow vertical take-offs and landings — even computer-guided ones — from the Joneses' back garden. And unlike such road-ready vehicles as the Terrafugia, the Dutch-made PAL-V One and the Aeromobil from Slovakia, the wheel-less Lilium Jet is strictly a flying machine.

And yet, compared with the wildly complex Terrafugia, the Lilium Jet is a remarkably simple machine, and it is that simplicity that has put it on the fast track toward series production. The company has successfully demonstrated the concept with a 25-kilogram flying prototype, and is presently crafting a full-size version. Lilium plans to have a production model ready by the stroke of midnight on 31 Dec 2018.

The future is coming soon, but you still have time to install a windsock atop the garage.

If you would like to comment on this or anything else you have seen on BBC Autos, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter. And while you're at it, join the BBC Autos community on Instagram.

And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called "If You Only Read 6 Things This Week". A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Autos, Future, Earth, Culture, Capital and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.

Source: The flying machine in your back garden

This Is the Airplane That Will Teach You to Love Flying

Travis soars of northern California's Lake Berryessa.    Photo: Icon

IndefinitelyWild

IndefinitelyWild is a lifestyle column telling the story of adventure travel in the outdoors, the vehicles and gear that get us there, and the people we meet along the way. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Any pilot will tell you there's nothing in the world like the sensation of flying. The months of unglamorous training, procedures, writing checklists, and scanning weather forecasts usually goes unmentioned. And that's not even considering how arduous and expensive it is to get a license to begin with. Icon wants to change all that, not only with this its new amphibious personal aircraft, but also with the accompanying training program.  

First, a little backstory. In 2005, the Federal Aviation Administration established a new category of small aircraft and an entry-level license to go with it. That "Sport Pilot" license requires less training, with the idea being to expand the appeal of aviation to more people. Icon's founder, Kirk Hawkins, saw that as an opportunity to create a totally new product specifically targeted at hobbyist pilots. After 10 years of development, we finally got the chance to fly the final product. And we can confidently report that the Icon A5 is not your uncle's Cessna. 

Weighing just 1,001 Lbs, you can tow the A5 behind most cars. Click to expand.   Photo: Icon

The sleek, fully-carbon composite fuselage was designed with styling, as much as safety, in mind. (Lead designer Klaus Tritschler used to pen BMW motorcycles.) In a world populated almost exclusively by garage-built, cobbled-together light aircraft, the A5 looks even better up close than it does in photos. Better yet, its form follows function—those cool-looking wings are designed to prevent stalling or spinning, and, should all else fail, there's a parachute hidden between them. 

I hopped in the A5 for the first time, windows removed, with Kirk in the right seat. We fired up the Rotax 912, pulled away from the dock, and throttled up. Before I even had time for a second thought, the plane bounded into the sky. The Icon breaks freely from the water in these calm conditions. In your standard Cessna, you'd be climbing for all you're worth at this point, and were your engine to go out, you would plummet back to earth. But here in the A5, with the safety of water beneath us, we uneventfully leveled off at 100 feet to go soaring around the lake. With an astounding field of view through the canopy, you feel like you're in the front car of the world's best roller coaster—just here you're in control.  

The A5's 100 HP Rotax engine can carry it to a top speed of 109 MPH, and makes take offs a breeze. Click to enlarge.   Photo: Icon

One of the key goals of the A5 is its ability to avoid stalls and spins, even in the hands of inexperienced pilots. And man, this thing just cannot be coaxed into losing lift. If you haven't experienced one, a stall is a sudden loss of lift and it is scary as hell. In general flight training, you're taught a "steep" turn that maxes out at 45 degrees: any further and you risk stalling. But in the Icon, you can fly circles that would fit inside a football field. And through all that, the controls remain friendly and light. If you can't enjoy flying this A5, you should probably stick to terra firma. 

All of our takeoffs and landings in the plane occurred within 1,000 feet. That's short enough to land at just about any airstrip, no matter how remote, and gives you access to relatively small bodies of water. But its top speed of 109 miles per hour will get you from home to lake pretty quickly. A full, 20-gallon tank of av gas (it can also run on regular automotive gasoline) will get you about 450 miles. That's enough to get you from San Francisco to Los Angeles, but if that's the kind of flight you regularly need to take, you're better off just buying a ticket. Save the Icon for experiencing the fun of flight, not the formality. 

Travis touches down. The A5 requires less than 1,000 feet to take off or land. Click to enlarge.   Photo: Icon

How do you normally fly an airplane? In a word: cautiously. You're constantly running your eyes over every instrument, listening for strange noises, and otherwise trying to stay within your envelope of safety. The Icon does a good job providing you all the tools necessary to do that job, right up front, in an uncluttered dash, where you can easily keep an eye on them. And they've added a high-tech Angle of Attack indicator that you wouldn't typically find on other light aircraft. That helped me keep the plane out of the danger zone—I wish I'd had such an instrument when I was learning to fly. Data like this will be a key part of the company's new training program, arming beginner pilots with the information they need to learn to fly safely. 

The A5's car-like instrumentation makes crucial in-flight information readily accessible to new pilots. Front and center is the high-tech AoA indicator, allowing inexperienced pilots to learn their airplane's limits. Click to enlarge.   Photo: Icon

I completed my own Sport Pilot license a little over a year ago, and have rented a bunch of different light aircraft ever since. I may not be the most experienced airplane reviewer out there, but I can state categorically that flying the Icon is an entirely different experience than piloting any other light aircraft out there. I was able to stop thinking about the mechanics of what was taking place and just enjoy the ride. I mostly found myself wishing there were a couple extra panes of glass to expand my view of the earth sliding past below. Can you imagine using this thing to reach remote lakes and campsites that flightless adventurers will never experience? 

Kirk and Travis chilling on the A5. Click to enlarge.   Photo: Icon

At over $190,000, I don't think I have enough organs to sell to buy one, but that didn't stop me from fantasizing about folding the wings up and trailering it home behind my car. My garage has just enough space, even if my bank account doesn't have enough Franklin's. 

We may not have reached the era of the flying car, but with the Icon A5, I think we have at least reached the age of the easy-to-fly airplane. It allows you to focus on where you want to go, not just how you plan to get there. 

Source: This Is the Airplane That Will Teach You to Love Flying

Dezso Molnar interview: My favorite (and least favorite) existing flying cars

Serial inventor Dezso Molnar is a man of many opinions - and strong ones at that. In fact, one short California road trip Loz Blain took with Dezso looks like it will stretch out to span five in-depth interview articles. Start out by reading about Dezso's background as an inventor, rocket scientist and musician, then check out his philosophical take on where flying cars should be going, and now for part three, Dezso speaks off the cuff about his favorite and least favorite flying car designs that are out there right now.

It's far from a complete list (he even missed out a few we put together in our own flying car roundup back in 2010) but since Dezso is about to launch the world's first flying car race series, it's fresh in his mind. We'll let him take it from here.

The Maverick

Just for a reality check, I like the Maverick a lot. It's a very slow flying wing, but it does what its goal is. They built it to travel around Africa in areas with few roads. Some roads might be extremely muddy, and the Maverick is effectively a four wheeled dune buggy that has a propeller on the back, as a pusher prop, and a parasail for a wing.

It's an extremely slow aircraft, it'll fly about 35, maybe 40 miles an hour at most. It has one speed, it takes off, lands and cruises at the same speed. That's part of the dynamics of the parasail wing. Tailwinds are your friend. You may want to drive into a headwind.

It has a carbon mast to set up the wing. You lift the fabric above the vehicle and then as you get moving forward, it inflates so you're able to take off and fly.

Imagine you're in some desolate part of a country, and there's a river that's formed overnight from a rain storm in the monsoon season. The nearest bridge is 3 or 400 miles away. So you can either drive that 3 or 400 muddy miles to cross the bridge, or you could pull out your ridiculous looking parachute and just fly over the thing and just be there in a couple minutes.

The other thing I like is that it's reliable, it's available for sale, and they've been flying and driving them for years. It's simple, and it provides you the value of both phases of travel when you need them. When it's the right time to fly, you fly it. When it's the right time to drive, you drive it.

The other thing I like is the pusher prop. Imagine you're on the ground caught in some horrible mud slick or whatever and you have no traction. I believe you can crank on the propeller to help blow yourself out of a mud puddle. That's great, because there's times when wheel drive doesn't work. So that's a situation where the evolution of the vehicle is leaning towards the value of flight and driving.

Zuck Plane-Mobile

Another one historically that I like is the Zuck Plane-Mobile, which was a very simple tractor aircraft with a propeller in the front, the front wheels would steer, it had a powered rear wheel and wings that would fold up above the roof.

It was an ingenious and simple approach. There were some other advantages that he tried to build into the wing system, but whether or not that worked, I'm not sure. He was trying to get away from ailerons, so he did a couple of reaches on the design, but I like it.

The Plane-Mobile was back in the 50s. It was a two seat aircraft. I personally don't like two seats if I can avoid them, because usually you end up driving by yourself. Eighty-five percent of cars have one person in them. I don't think you need to create the additional challenges of making something small on the road that folds up, whatever, for two people that aren't gonna be there. Just focus on one for god's sake, and let's get going folks.

Pitcairn AC-35

The AC35 was a Pitcairn gyroplane made back in the 1930s that could also drive on the road. It flew well and I believe made a flight from the White House lawn.

It had a driven rear wheel. It wasn't fast on the ground, it rolled 25 miles an hour tops.

I've had my Gyrocycle to 140 miles an hour, and could easily pump it up to 200 plus. I like things that are quick on the road, I like road superiority. It's a very fast bike that leans into turns, it doesn't pull wheelies so I'm able to open the throttle in every gear, so it's just flat-out fun and quick.

The Volante

One fixed wing that's working is the Volante from K.P. Rice. It's essentially a winged aircraft, and a trike you can drive on the road [with the flight gear as a separate trailer you can bring when you need it]. He has a first version that he's flown and driven.

Terrafugia Transition

The Terrafugia Transition was well publicized recently. Again a risky business model where they took advance payments to fund development, and made promises for delivery slots. I have a friend who bought one of the places on it, and has long since abandoned it.

The "deposit for aircraft" business model attracts buyers who are perceived as supporters, but they are actually hedging. Often a purchaser will put down $10k or less to hold an early serial number with their deposits secured in an escrow account. The deposit is safe, so they purchase 3 or 4 serial numbers at an ambitious dream price touted by the builder of say, $100K. The aircraft company borrows against those deposits and goes deep in debt to do development. The costs skyrocket to double or worse for the plane such as with the Terrafugia and Bede and Icon, so the buyer sells 3 of his 4 positions just below market cost and gets a free plane. This cannibalizes the buyers that could have paid market rate to the manufacturer. If I had a dollar for everyone who suggests I do this I could retire to Geneva.

Terrafugia did get one Transition flying and driving. It's got four wheels and two seats, so it's heavy and complex. I give him much credit for trying to fit in the light sport category, but he stacked the deck against himself by taking the position that he needed to make something for people who wanted to buy a safe vehicle.

I don't really care about people that want safe vehicles. I care about people that want to BASE jump. Those are the people that drive things in the new world. I'm not designing for people who are focused on their fears, or to provide opportunities for their fears to be extended and coddled. People in the motorcycle and experimental aircraft culture are cautiously optimistic. I support them.

Larry Neal's Super Sky Cycle

Larry Neal has passed away, but he made a vehicle called the Super Sky Cycle, which is a gyroplane and a trike. It's a combination aircraft and birth control device. It isn't very pretty. It does fly well, but doesn't drive as well.

Larry made a few of them, and there's a woman who has inherited one from her father. I met him at Oshkosh a few years ago. I'm in contact with her, and I'd like her to come out and race it.

The Pal-V

Another flying motorcycle that's similar to mine is the Pal-V, which is a Dutch version of a gyroplane using the Carver Car as a base vehicle.

A very expensive proof of concept was built. There are claims that they will bring it to market, but again it's dwindled, and gone down the vortex of military and police justifications ... These things are very good attention getters, but they generally don't go beyond that, because they don't come to market as they claim.

The sad thing with the Carver car – it's an amazing car but they couldn't find the right economics to bring it to market. It cost them as much to build as the market would bear. It's a tilting tandem seat, three wheeled vehicle. It is brilliant. I've been to the factory in the Netherlands. But Pal-V used a failing car company as the basis for a languishing flying car company.

Caravellair

A friend of mine, Joe Caravella, is working on an aircraft called the CaraVellair that fits the motorcycle category on the ground, with three wheels, and has wings. He hasn't finished the wing construction, but I'm hoping that he will be able to complete what he's built so far and race it.

Switchblade

Another design that's similar to Joe's is up in Auburn, called the Switchblade. They are still fabricating a first vehicle, and if it works it could be a nice performer on the road, probably over 100 mph, and fly over 100 mph since the wing is small.

On VTOL flying cars

Right now, I'm interested in electric propulsion because it's so simple to use, you don't have the additional complexities of a transmission system, and you can pass smog checks. I don't think vertical takeoff and gyroplanes are the way to go with electrics now, because their power loading is extremely high. I think very efficient wings and an aircraft that's designed for best range is the right approach to operate in the existing road and airport infrastructure.

The Moller Skycar

The Moller Skycar – that is not one of my favorites. I think he's done more to stop people from developing flying cars than anybody, because he has an extremely strong resume. He started the Supertrapp muffler company, which was a good muffler company and I believe he spun it out to Kerker.

His vertical takeoff machine, he claims that it flies, it has never traveled … It just hovers, usually attached to a crane by a cable. It's designed to be a flying machine. But many people have the perception that because he has a very strong academic background, that his machine is an eventuality, and it actually stops other people from trying.

A friend of mine wrote the patent for it, and I have other friends that used to work at the factory. I saw it for the first time almost thirty years ago. If the thing were to work, it's extremely loud, has extremely high power loading, high fuel usage, and it's not what I would call a threat.

He's married himself to the idea of vertical takeoff and landing. I ask people with similar fixations, have you ever flown through the air? If you did it with a set of wings that required a runway, does that mean it was a useless experience? Of course not.

Helicopters have not been terribly successful in their acceptance in the public. We have seven billion people in the world and only about 60,000 helicopters, that's it. There's not many helicopters because they're complex, very expensive and challenging to fly. They're good if they have an engine failure because they can autorotate to a safe landing.

On manned multirotors and jetpacks

Some new attempts at manned vertical takeoff quadcopters – Ehang, VoloCopter, et cetera, work great when they work, but when they stop running, then usually the failure mode is to drop from a high altitude. Flying close to the ground is not legal in most places. There's no autorotation capacity built into the propeller blades because they're just too short.

You can't say "we don't have to design it for failure because it has all these redundant systems to keep the propellers spinning." That's not what failure is about. Failure is about … Failure. What do you do when this thing fails? A powerplant is usually the thing that's gonna go. If one dies, why not the other three? Or seven? Doesn't the probability go up? What do you do then? Do you have an airframe or a system that will allow you to survive?

As far as manned multirotors, including the New Zealand Martin Jetpack, I saw that thing fly some years ago just above ground level. I was impressed instantly at its power authority. It looked very compelling to me. I thought, this guy's got it. Bless him, he's on the path and there's no reason for me to get involved other than to sit back and enjoy what looked like a really good engine/prop combination.

Obviously their challenge is that the piston engine is screaming, so the possibility of an engine failure when you're fully loading is the key concern. I don't know if it's de-rated at all, but my guess is it's probably running pretty hard. They have been experimenting with ballistic chutes.

Nelson Tyler, he's just flown his new JB-9 turbine jetpack, which I saw about two years ago when he had it physically under wraps. He took the cover off for me to see it. It was a function of getting counter rotating engines running to complete it. I'm really happy that he's taken jet packs to a new level, and he's gone from 23 second flights to 12 minutes by using gas turbines, and applied all his experience with his hydrogen peroxide jet packs.

I applaud those guys for doing it. We're now officially in the age of jetpacks thanks to Nelson and David Mayman and their crew's efforts to have better jet packs. A 12 minute flight is certainly adequate for a person to fly somewhere, land, walk around for 2 or 3 hours if necessary and then fly out. And the restart capability of a jet is well established. Currently their flights are over water only.

The multirotors … god bless Ehang for stealing the show at CES! I really appreciate the fact that a comparatively unknown company was able to illustrate that if you want to scoop a lot of attention at a trade show, bring an aircraft that a person can get inside of. People care about that, they relate to that. Nobody cares about robots, but the minute you put a person in something, that interface, whether it's Neil Armstrong or Charles Lindbergh, or the guy that's sitting in a multirotor that's hovering somewhere … People can relate!

Putting Dick Rutan in a rocket powered airplane was a really smart thing XCOR did, because nobody cares about rocket engine tests on the ground. But when they put the engine on an airframe and a person in it, they grabbed headlines for their startup company. It creates the same kind of freak flag that I like to hang out and attract people who truly want to be involved in this kind of stuff, who may not be aware that you have these machines in development.

So the multirotor. Obviously you go back to Evolo a couple of years ago, Thomas Senkel flew their yoga ball for starters, and then the team fully developed a two person vehicle, the Volocopter. It's flying, and they are working toward some type of category certification in Germany. He did some of his work with Gabe DeVault at the Calfee shop and was impressed with my Gyrocycle. Thomas just recently did a first flight with an electric scooter and parasail wing called the "Skyrider One". He calls it the easiest way to have a flying car. He can climb with thermals and fly for a couple hours. I plan to meet him in Europe this summer.

Don't miss parts one and two of this interview series, and stay tuned for the next installment in a week or so!

Source: Dezso Molnar interview: My favorite (and least favorite) existing flying cars

Dezso Molnar interview: My favourite (and least favourite) existing flying cars

Serial inventor Dezso Molnar is a man of many opinions - and strong ones at that. In fact, one short California road trip Loz Blain took with Dezso looks like it will stretch out to span five in-depth interview articles. Start out by reading about Dezso's background as an inventor, rocket scientist and musician, then check out his philosophical take on where flying cars should be going, and now for part three, Dezso speaks off the cuff about his favorite and least favorite flying car designs that are out there right now.

It's far from a complete list (he even missed out a few we put together in our own flying car roundup back in 2010) but since Dezso is about to launch the world's first flying car race series, it's fresh in his mind. We'll let him take it from here.

The Maverick

Just for a reality check, I like the Maverick a lot. It's a very slow flying wing, but it does what its goal is. They built it to travel around Africa in areas with few roads. Some roads might be extremely muddy, and the Maverick is effectively a four wheeled dune buggy that has a propeller on the back, as a pusher prop, and a parasail for a wing.

It's an extremely slow aircraft, it'll fly about 35, maybe 40 miles an hour at most. It has one speed, it takes off, lands and cruises at the same speed. That's part of the dynamics of the parasail wing. Tailwinds are your friend. You may want to drive into a headwind.

It has a carbon mast to set up the wing. You lift the fabric above the vehicle and then as you get moving forward, it inflates so you're able to take off and fly.

Imagine you're in some desolate part of a country, and there's a river that's formed overnight from a rain storm in the monsoon season. The nearest bridge is 3 or 400 miles away. So you can either drive that 3 or 400 muddy miles to cross the bridge, or you could pull out your ridiculous looking parachute and just fly over the thing and just be there in a couple minutes.

The other thing I like is that it's reliable, it's available for sale, and they've been flying and driving them for years. It's simple, and it provides you the value of both phases of travel when you need them. When it's the right time to fly, you fly it. When it's the right time to drive, you drive it.

The other thing I like is the pusher prop. Imagine you're on the ground caught in some horrible mud slick or whatever and you have no traction. I believe you can crank on the propeller to help blow yourself out of a mud puddle. That's great, because there's times when wheel drive doesn't work. So that's a situation where the evolution of the vehicle is leaning towards the value of flight and driving.

Zuck Plane-Mobile

Another one historically that I like is the Zuck Plane-Mobile, which was a very simple tractor aircraft with a propeller in the front, the front wheels would steer, it had a powered rear wheel and wings that would fold up above the roof.

It was an ingenious and simple approach. There were some other advantages that he tried to build into the wing system, but whether or not that worked, I'm not sure. He was trying to get away from ailerons, so he did a couple of reaches on the design, but I like it.

The Plane-Mobile was back in the 50s. It was a two seat aircraft. I personally don't like two seats if I can avoid them, because usually you end up driving by yourself. Eighty-five percent of cars have one person in them. I don't think you need to create the additional challenges of making something small on the road that folds up, whatever, for two people that aren't gonna be there. Just focus on one for god's sake, and let's get going folks.

Pitcairn AC-35

The AC35 was a Pitcairn gyroplane made back in the 1930s that could also drive on the road. It flew well and I believe made a flight from the White House lawn.

It had a driven rear wheel. It wasn't fast on the ground, it rolled 25 miles an hour tops.

I've had my Gyrocycle to 140 miles an hour, and could easily pump it up to 200 plus. I like things that are quick on the road, I like road superiority. It's a very fast bike that leans into turns, it doesn't pull wheelies so I'm able to open the throttle in every gear, so it's just flat-out fun and quick.

The Volante

One fixed wing that's working is the Volante from K.P. Rice. It's essentially a canard aircraft, and a trike you can drive on the road [with the flight gear as a separate trailer you can bring when you need it]. He has a first version that he's flown and driven.

Terrafugia Transition

The Terrafugia Transition was well publicized recently. Again a risky business model where they took advance payments to fund development, and made promises for delivery slots. I have a friend who bought one of the places on it, and has long since abandoned it.

The "deposit for aircraft" business model attracts buyers who are perceived as supporters, but they are actually hedging. Often a purchaser will put down $10k or less to hold an early serial number with their deposits secured in an escrow account. The deposit is safe, so they purchase 3 or 4 serial numbers at an ambitious dream price touted by the builder of say, $100K. The aircraft company borrows against those deposits and goes deep in debt to do development. The costs skyrocket to double or worse for the plane such as with the Terrafugia and Bede and Icon, so the buyer sells 3 of his 4 positions just below market cost and gets a free plane. This cannibalizes the buyers that could have paid market rate to the manufacturer. If I had a dollar for everyone who suggests I do this I could retire to Geneva.

Terrafugia did get one Transition flying and driving. It's got four wheels and two seats, so it's heavy and complex. I give him much credit for trying to fit in the light sport category, but he stacked the deck against himself by taking the position that he needed to make something for people who wanted to buy a safe vehicle.

I don't really care about people that want safe vehicles. I care about people that want to BASE jump. Those are the people that drive things in the new world. I'm not designing for people who are focused on their fears, or to provide opportunities for their fears to be extended and coddled. People in the motorcycle and experimental aircraft culture are cautiously optimistic. I support them.

Larry Neal's Super Sky Cycle

Larry Neal has passed away, but he made a vehicle called the Super Sky Cycle, which is a gyroplane and a trike. It's a combination aircraft and birth control device. It isn't very pretty. It does fly well, but doesn't drive as well.

Larry made a few of them, and there's a woman who has inherited one from her father. I met him at Oshkosh a few years ago. I'm in contact with her, and I'd like her to come out and race it.

The Pal-V

Another flying motorcycle that's similar to mine is the Pal-V, which is a Dutch version of a gyroplane using the Carver Car as a base vehicle.

A very expensive proof of concept was built. There are claims that they will bring it to market, but again it's dwindled, and gone down the vortex of military and police justifications ... These things are very good attention getters, but they generally don't go beyond that, because they don't come to market as they claim.

The sad thing with the Carver car – it's an amazing car but they couldn't find the right economics to bring it to market. It cost them as much to build as the market would bear. It's a tilting tandem seat, three wheeled vehicle. It is brilliant. I've been to the factory in the Netherlands. But Pal-V used a failing car company as the basis for a languishing flying car company.

Caravellair

A friend of mine, Joe Caravella, is working on an aircraft called the CaraVellair that fits the motorcycle category on the ground, with three wheels, and has wings. He hasn't finished the wing construction, but I'm hoping that he will be able to complete what he's built so far and race it.

Switchblade

Another design that's similar to Joe's is up in Auburn, called the Switchblade. They are still fabricating a first vehicle, and if it works it could be a nice performer on the road, probably over 100 mph, and fly over 100 mph since the wing is small.

On VTOL flying cars

Right now, I'm interested in electric propulsion because it's so simple to use, you don't have the additional complexities of a transmission system, and you can pass smog checks. I don't think vertical takeoff and gyroplanes are the way to go with electrics now, because their power loading is extremely high. I think very efficient wings and an aircraft that's designed for best range is the right approach to operate in the existing road and airport infrastructure.

The Moller Skycar

The Moller Skycar – that is not one of my favorites. I think he's done more to stop people from developing flying cars than anybody, because he has an extremely strong resume. He started the Supertrapp muffler company, which was a good muffler company and I believe he spun it out to Kerker.

His vertical takeoff machine, he claims that it flies, it has never traveled … It just hovers, usually attached to a crane by a cable. It's designed to be a flying machine. But many people have the perception that because he has a very strong academic background, that his machine is an eventuality, and it actually stops other people from trying.

A friend of mine wrote the patent for it, and I have other friends that used to work at the factory. I saw it for the first time almost thirty years ago. If the thing were to work, it's extremely loud, has extremely high power loading, high fuel usage, and it's not what I would call a threat.

He's married himself to the idea of vertical takeoff and landing. I ask people with similar fixations, have you ever flown through the air? If you did it with a set of wings that required a runway, does that mean it was a useless experience? Of course not.

Helicopters have not been terribly successful in their acceptance in the public. We have seven billion people in the world and only about 60,000 helicopters, that's it. There's not many helicopters because they're complex, very expensive and challenging to fly. They're good if they have an engine failure because they can autorotate to a safe landing.

On manned multirotors and jetpacks

Some new attempts at manned vertical takeoff quadcopters – Ehang, VoloCopter, et cetera, work great when they work, but when they stop running, then usually the failure mode is to drop from a high altitude. Flying close to the ground is not legal in most places. There's no autorotation capacity built into the propeller blades because they're just too short.

You can't say "we don't have to design it for failure because it has all these redundant systems to keep the propellers spinning." That's not what failure is about. Failure is about … Failure. What do you do when this thing fails? A powerplant is usually the thing that's gonna go. If one dies, why not the other three? Or seven? Doesn't the probability go up? What do you do then? Do you have an airframe or a system that will allow you to survive?

As far as manned multirotors, including the New Zealand Martin Jetpack, I saw that thing fly some years ago just above ground level. I was impressed instantly at its power authority. It looked very compelling to me. I thought, this guy's got it. Bless him, he's on the path and there's no reason for me to get involved other than to sit back and enjoy what looked like a really good engine/prop combination.

Obviously their challenge is that the piston engine is screaming, so the possibility of an engine failure when you're fully loading is the key concern. I don't know if it's de-rated at all, but my guess is it's probably running pretty hard. They have been experimenting with ballistic chutes.

Nelson Tyler, he's just flown his new JB-9 turbine jetpack, which I saw about two years ago when he had it physically under wraps. He took the cover off for me to see it. It was a function of getting counter rotating engines running to complete it. I'm really happy that he's taken jet packs to a new level, and he's gone from 23 second flights to 12 minutes by using gas turbines, and applied all his experience with his hydrogen peroxide jet packs.

I applaud those guys for doing it. We're now officially in the age of jetpacks thanks to Nelson and David Mayman and their crew's efforts to have better jet packs. A 12 minute flight is certainly adequate for a person to fly somewhere, land, walk around for 2 or 3 hours if necessary and then fly out. And the restart capability of a jet is well established. Currently their flights are over water only.

The multirotors … god bless Ehang for stealing the show at CES! I really appreciate the fact that a comparatively unknown company was able to illustrate that if you want to scoop a lot of attention at a trade show, bring an aircraft that a person can get inside of. People care about that, they relate to that. Nobody cares about robots, but the minute you put a person in something, that interface, whether it's Neil Armstrong or Charles Lindbergh, or the guy that's sitting in a multirotor that's hovering somewhere … People can relate!

Putting Dick Rutan in a rocket powered airplane was a really smart thing XCOR did, because nobody cares about rocket engine tests on the ground. But when they put the engine on an airframe and a person in it, they grabbed headlines for their startup company. It creates the same kind of freak flag that I like to hang out and attract people who truly want to be involved in this kind of stuff, who may not be aware that you have these machines in development.

So the multirotor. Obviously you go back to Evolo a couple of years ago, Thomas Senkel flew their yoga ball for starters, and then the team fully developed a two person vehicle, the Volocopter. It's flying, and they are working toward some type of category certification in Germany. He did some of his work with Gabe DeVault at the Calfee shop and was impressed with my Gyrocycle. Thomas just recently did a first flight with an electric scooter and parasail wing called the "Skyrider One". He calls it the easiest way to have a flying car. He can climb with thermals and fly for a couple hours. I plan to meet him in Europe this summer.

Don't miss parts one and two of this interview series, and stay tuned for the next installment in a week or so!

Source: Dezso Molnar interview: My favourite (and least favourite) existing flying cars