View Full Version : Is this the new 'must have'??
everynowandthen
7th Jul 2011, 13:36
Flying car is 'road legal' | The Sun |News (http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3682830/Flying-car-is-road-legal.html)
Probably not.
The main points that spring to mind:
1) would you really want to park an aircraft outside your house or place of work? it's bad enough if someone dings your car, but doing so to an aircraft would seriously alter the flying characteristics
2) isn't there a reason almost all aircraft have 3 wheels not 4?
Genghis the Engineer
7th Jul 2011, 14:49
"Worlds First" apart from the Hamilton Aerocar, and half a dozen other such projects over the last 50 years.
Frankly, if you can afford £160k, buy a helicopter.
G
This one has been around for some time. Must admit like another post in the thread dont understand why they have gone 4 wheel when 2 rear and 1 nose would work well on both car and plane.
One nose wheel would hgave made for less weight and better streamlining.
Pace
riverrock83
6th Apr 2012, 13:54
Two more of these I've heard of recently:
Terrafugia Transition (folding wings): BBC News - US company Terrafugia develops car with wings (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17626816)
Personal Air and Land Vehicle (PAL-V) (folding gyrocopter) : BBC News - Will sales of flying car take off? (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17592648)
(not sure which thread to link with these - there is another thread here (http://www.pprune.org/private-flying/420362-flying-car-gains-certification.html) )
The PAL-V is Dutch - so does that mean a slightly higher change of it reaching the UK?
With a wing span of 27.5ft and an airborne range of 460 miles, owners could soar into the skies and cruise at 115mph if traffic gets too much
I wonder if somebody already thought about the legality of taking off from a road? Not to mention the practical aspects, such as not being able to accelerate to Vr once you're already caught in a traffic jam? :ouch:
Ciao,
DG800
This one has been around for some time. Must admit like another post in the thread dont understand why they have gone 4 wheel when 2 rear and 1 nose would work well on both car and plane.
One nose wheel would hgave made for less weight and better streamlining.
Three wheeled cars unfortunately have a tendency to tip over when they steer too sharply, as demonstrated repeatedly (on purpose) by Jeremy Clarkson in this Top Gear video:
Rolling a Reliant Robin - Top Gear - BBC - YouTube
RedhillPhil
6th Apr 2012, 14:30
Three wheeled cars unfortunately have a tendency to tip over when they steer too sharply, as demonstrated repeatedly (on purpose) by Jeremy Clarkson in this Top Gear video:
Rolling a Reliant Robin - Top Gear - BBC - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQh56geU0X8)
...especially when they've deliberately had odd sized rear wheels fitted to facilitate it for the benefit of the loud mouthed millionaire.
chevvron
6th Apr 2012, 14:45
Not just 'loud mouthed' Phil, the b'stard deliberately targets any wild animals which might stray on 'his' road and awards himself points for a kill or an injury; maximum points for killing a deer. My short stint at Dunsfold unfortunately didn't coincide with any of his filming days, otherwise I might have found the excuse to let aircraft use the runway rather than him.
...especially when they've deliberately had odd sized rear wheels fitted to facilitate it for the benefit of the loud mouthed millionaire. They didn't need odd sized wheels, I've rolled a Robin doing what I thought was a quite normal junction turn. At some speed but not at a speed that would have bothered any normal 4 wheeled car. I was driving my mate back from the pub, we were both bikers and he had the Robin for wet days taking the ladies out etc. We just got out, rolled it upright, calmed the screaming ladies and carried on. Dodgy vehicle though.
Incidentally, Del Boy's Reliant wasn't a Robin, it was a Rialto, which was the van version. Useful for pub quizes.
Floppy Link
7th Apr 2012, 07:56
How do you get it in the door of the pub?
zondaracer
7th Apr 2012, 14:11
The tricycle design was deemed so dangerous from tipping over in braking turns, that the US banned new sales of 3 wheeled ATVs back in 1988. The advantage of a tripod vs having 4 points of contact is the ability to get all the points on the ground at the same time. Think of the common chair where one leg is slightly shorter than the other three.
If they stick with three wheels for the road, I would think a tadpole design would be better (two wheels up front, one in the back), effectively making the aircraft a taildragger.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Red_Campagna_T-Rex_in_New_York_left_rear.jpg