Flying Cars

Other Unique Engineering Ideas

When George Jetson first flew across American TV screens in his flying car-like vehicle in 1962, many of us began wondering when we could buy our own Supersonic Suburbanite or Spacion Wagon. Amazingly, that day may be around the corner. After a century of unfulfilled promises, flying cars may fill the skies in the next few decades. There are still some obstacles to overcome, including receiving approval from the FAA, but the cars are close to being finished.

1.  Description

2.  Why Make Cars Fly

3.  How They Work

4.  Previous Attempts

5.  Future Trends

      6. Related Links 

Useful Links Advanced Flying Automobile, MACRO Industries, I.C.E, Flight Testing

Description

  • In 1892 Henry Ford started building his first experimental automobile.

  • In 1903 the Wright brothers first flew their self-powered aircraft.

  • In 1918 the first patent for a flying car was issued to a Mr. Felix Longobardi.

  • In 1919 Glenn Curtiss' Autoplane made a very short flight.

And now still the flying cars and roadable aircraft seem to be more of a dream than a reality. Many people believe that these things do not exist. The truth is that almost from the moment the Wright Brothers learned to fly, people have been attempting to build such vehicles and some of them have had a fair degree of success.

Why Make Cars Fly

Experts have designed the world's first practical flying car aimed at frustrated commuters. They have come up with interesting advantages over existing technologies.

  1. FlyRider is low tech and uses an aluminium frame to keep the design simple and to keep the manufacturing costs as low as possible. The ducted fans of the FlyRider offer several advantages over helicopter design.

    B.  The CityHawk will be powered by fans that are driven by four internal combustion engines. This redundancy of engines will allow the vehicle to land even if one of the engines is lost.         

How They Work

The FlyRider, created by Stefan Hager, is designed to use a three rotor layout to be able it to takeoff and land vertically.This concept will allow it to perform any translational and rotational movements using only differential thrust. Pitch will be controlled by increasing or decreasing thrust at the front or back rotors. Roll will be controlled by increasing or decreasing thrust at the left or right engine.

  • Two rotors (front end right) produce no free torque since one rotates countwise, the second one clockwise.
  • It helps to eliminate the free torque produced by the left tail rotor and to control yaw , the front rotor can be tilted by the pilot.
  • The tilt rotor is also used to compensate the asymmetrical lift.
  • A rotor's advancing blades combine their rotational speed with the helicopter's forward airspeed to produce increased lift on one side of the rotor; the retreating blades, in contrast, subtract their rotational speed from the helicopter's forward airspeed and produce less lift.
  • The resulting asymmetrical lift at high speed produces roll forces that increase with forward airspeed.
  • Once again, these forces can be controlled to the degree needed by the pilot, using the tiller bar.
  • At flight time, the flight section is easily and safely re-attached to the automobile.

Most helicopters use turbines since they offer a perfect thrust to weight ratio. FlyRider is powered by standard combustion engines with high power to weight ration. Since the engines are located in the propeller downwash, no additional cooling is required. The flying car's conversion time goal, either way, is under five minutes for one person and that goal appears to be easily attainable.

Previous Attempts

  • Paul Moller has spent 40 years and millions of dollars developing his Skycar.

  • MACRO Industries in Huntsville, Ala., is developing a flying car that it's calling the SkyRider X2R.

  • In Israel, Dr. Rafi Yoeli of Urban Aeronautics is testing the CityHawk, a prototype of a fly-by-wire car.

  • In 1990, Kenneth Wernicke formed Sky Technologies to develop a small-winged flying car

  • Recently, Branko Sarh, a senior engineer at McDonnell Douglas Aerospace, has attempted to develop a flying car, called the Sokol A400.

Future Trends

A quarter-scale model of the final flying car kit configuration is simultaneously being developed. It will incorporate all of the appropriate configuration changes indicated by tests with both vehicles.With this final configuration, transformation is almost a "one button" change. A full-size prototype is planned, but for now the designers are working with a one-fifth scale model in the wind tunnel and relying on computer simulations for development.

Keywords

Skycar, SkyRider X2R, CityHawk, FlyRider, Stefan Hager, George Jetson

Related Articles

Related Links