British Flying Car:Will it take off?
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British Flying Car:Will it take off?
ParaJet Automotive :: SkyCar
SkyCar: magnificent flying car - Telegraph
Since the first flying car prototype in 1949 there has been a global quest to find the money and the magic formula to concoct a flying car people can buy. But despite the efforts of the Pentagon and the pioneering Canadian millionaire Paul Moller, no one has assembled a high-performance car which flies and put it on the market.
The two-seater SkyCar is the brainchild of Giles Cardozo, 29, the madcap engineer of the paramotor world who pieced together the prototype from his barn in Dorset on a limited budget of about £100,000. It does not pay a wistful glance to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
It's a souped-up buggy suspended beneath a giant canopy that sails above the car in flight. It's the latest in paramotor technology – in flight mode a fan motor drives it forward and the fabric wing takes it up and away. It's an extraordinary achievement of design.
The two-seater SkyCar is the brainchild of Giles Cardozo, 29, the madcap engineer of the paramotor world who pieced together the prototype from his barn in Dorset on a limited budget of about £100,000. It does not pay a wistful glance to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
It's a souped-up buggy suspended beneath a giant canopy that sails above the car in flight. It's the latest in paramotor technology – in flight mode a fan motor drives it forward and the fabric wing takes it up and away. It's an extraordinary achievement of design.
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One of the snags with trying to produce a 'flying car' is the need to comply with road safety rules such as crash worthiness, airbags and the like as well air safety rules.
The way to go!
Congratulations to the Skycar Team 
. They have realised that the real benefit of a flying car is in third world countries, where roads are few and far between, and what roads there are are rutted and tortuous.
A wing that can be stored in a sack and repaired with a sewing machine, coupled to a rugged buggy has to be the way to go
.
If they could make a flying truck in a similar vein, there could be a few third world aid charities who would be interested. Crossing rivers, ravines would be a doddle.
The CAA must be praying that Skycars do not catch on here though!
. They have realised that the real benefit of a flying car is in third world countries, where roads are few and far between, and what roads there are are rutted and tortuous. A wing that can be stored in a sack and repaired with a sewing machine, coupled to a rugged buggy has to be the way to go
.If they could make a flying truck in a similar vein, there could be a few third world aid charities who would be interested. Crossing rivers, ravines would be a doddle.
The CAA must be praying that Skycars do not catch on here though!
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There are a lot of excellent aircraft which meet the prevailing design requirements. There are a lot of aircraft which have the proportions necessary to make them safe and delightful to fly, Nearly all aircraft have characteristics which make them within the insurance grasp of most pilots. All aircraft can be damaged and repaired withiout affecting the operability of your car (unless you damaged your aircraft with your car!). All aircraft are clearly defined from a licensing standpoint.
There are a lot of excellent cars which meet the prevailing design requirements for cars. There are al lot of cars which have characteristics which make them a delight to drive. Nearly all cars are insurable for most drivers, All cars can be damaged, without incurring really expensive aircraft repair costs. All cars can sustain minor damage, which is permitted to go unrepaired for the rest of the life of the car, as it only affects the cosmetics of the car, not its operating characteristics. All cars can be loaded with some disregard for weight and balance, and still driven safely.
All drivers of cars, understand that the road is the place for a car, not the sky. All pilots understand that the sky is the place for an aircraft, not the road...
And then there is the concept of the affordable flying car. Thank goodness for the distinction between a concept, and day to day reality!
Pilot DAR
There are a lot of excellent cars which meet the prevailing design requirements for cars. There are al lot of cars which have characteristics which make them a delight to drive. Nearly all cars are insurable for most drivers, All cars can be damaged, without incurring really expensive aircraft repair costs. All cars can sustain minor damage, which is permitted to go unrepaired for the rest of the life of the car, as it only affects the cosmetics of the car, not its operating characteristics. All cars can be loaded with some disregard for weight and balance, and still driven safely.
All drivers of cars, understand that the road is the place for a car, not the sky. All pilots understand that the sky is the place for an aircraft, not the road...
And then there is the concept of the affordable flying car. Thank goodness for the distinction between a concept, and day to day reality!
Pilot DAR
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Does this mean that your local LAE will now do MOTs and Kwik-Fit will be able to undertake Annual Checks?
But fortunately, there are plenty of long, straight, flat & level runways for the Skycar to use.?
Thats a big sack!
The sack or the wing?
roads there are are rutted and tortuous
A wing that can be stored in a sack
Repaired with a sewing machine
Last edited by Kolibear; 29th Sep 2009 at 08:21.
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IMHO the biggest problem is that it is simply awfully hard to enter the GA market.
Cirrus did it some years ago, by marketing at high net worth low experience individuals (the only avenue left if you want to shift capable tourers).
Diamond did it, with the mainly the avtur burning engine being the chief selling point.
There is a lot of activity on the VFR-only "sports" / "lawn mower with a wing" scene.
Not a lot else going on. Some other projects have been shelved (Evector Cobra for example).
I think this kind of project is going to require massive funding, to end up with a reliable car and a reliable plane. I would not want to be driving a Reliant Robin around, with Vauxhall Viva electrics and 3mm of flimsy fibreglass protecting me from any idiot that runs into me, which is what the "car" portion of this will inevitably be.
It doesn't solve the #1 GA issue which is lack of airports, airport closing times, lack of IAPs, etc. It merely solves the issue of transport between the airport and the place you are going to, and for the money involved one could get taxi rides, or a rental car dropped off at the airport, for the rest of one's life.
There may be specialised applications but the volume will never be high enough to make it viable and to create an incentive to iron out the inevitable bugs.
Cirrus did it some years ago, by marketing at high net worth low experience individuals (the only avenue left if you want to shift capable tourers).
Diamond did it, with the mainly the avtur burning engine being the chief selling point.
There is a lot of activity on the VFR-only "sports" / "lawn mower with a wing" scene.
Not a lot else going on. Some other projects have been shelved (Evector Cobra for example).
I think this kind of project is going to require massive funding, to end up with a reliable car and a reliable plane. I would not want to be driving a Reliant Robin around, with Vauxhall Viva electrics and 3mm of flimsy fibreglass protecting me from any idiot that runs into me, which is what the "car" portion of this will inevitably be.
It doesn't solve the #1 GA issue which is lack of airports, airport closing times, lack of IAPs, etc. It merely solves the issue of transport between the airport and the place you are going to, and for the money involved one could get taxi rides, or a rental car dropped off at the airport, for the rest of one's life.
There may be specialised applications but the volume will never be high enough to make it viable and to create an incentive to iron out the inevitable bugs.
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A few questions I had after reading the article:
1 - how noisy is it?
2 - how fast does it fly (for example with a 25 knot headwind)?
3 - how many people does it need (to leave) on the ground to launch it?
1 - how noisy is it?
2 - how fast does it fly (for example with a 25 knot headwind)?
3 - how many people does it need (to leave) on the ground to launch it?
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It doesn't solve the #1 GA issue which is lack of airports, airport closing times, lack of IAPs, etc. It merely solves the issue of transport between the airport and the place you are going to, and for the money involved one could get taxi rides, or a rental car dropped off at the airport, for the rest of one's life.
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...and the whole concept is utterly pointless. The helicopter was already invented!
The paramotor/car idea is not at all practical, as they can only fly in very light winds, would probably be quicker and easier to just go overland.
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£10k and the rest...
A bare PPL is barely useful for any utility flying. You need instrument capability, both in the pilot (let's set the legality to one side and just look at the bare practical issue) and in the aircraft. And even then one is limited by the lack of instrument-accessible airfields.
I am sure there will be specialised applications for it, but (to take one case) if someone is commuting on a regular route, one can leave an old car (or a scooter) at the other airport. In the less developed European countries (in which, basically, you can leave a car parked somewhere for years and nobody will care) this is routinely done. One could even pull it off at some UK locations.
BTW I don't think low-end helicopters are more expensive to operate than a half decent IFR tourer. No personal experience - I only speak of what owners of both tell me. A turbine one will cost a whole load more of course, but the amount of money which is spent (all over the world) on turbine helis costing £1M plus is a powerful and obvious statement of the utility value of a heli versus fixed-wing.... It may also be a statement of a widespread perception of piston helis being unsafe... I don't know.
It would not suprise me if the market for the car/plane was in emerging and massively deregulated economies e.g. China where any enterpreneur can knock up a runway in his back yard.
A bare PPL is barely useful for any utility flying. You need instrument capability, both in the pilot (let's set the legality to one side and just look at the bare practical issue) and in the aircraft. And even then one is limited by the lack of instrument-accessible airfields.
I am sure there will be specialised applications for it, but (to take one case) if someone is commuting on a regular route, one can leave an old car (or a scooter) at the other airport. In the less developed European countries (in which, basically, you can leave a car parked somewhere for years and nobody will care) this is routinely done. One could even pull it off at some UK locations.
BTW I don't think low-end helicopters are more expensive to operate than a half decent IFR tourer. No personal experience - I only speak of what owners of both tell me. A turbine one will cost a whole load more of course, but the amount of money which is spent (all over the world) on turbine helis costing £1M plus is a powerful and obvious statement of the utility value of a heli versus fixed-wing.... It may also be a statement of a widespread perception of piston helis being unsafe... I don't know.
It would not suprise me if the market for the car/plane was in emerging and massively deregulated economies e.g. China where any enterpreneur can knock up a runway in his back yard.
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It's hard to imagine it working in the crowded, heavily regulated, tarmaced UK/Urban US/Europe where domestic travel is not too big a problem, but in less well inhabited, warmer climes surely there's a market. Drive-Fly-Drive in ones own vehicle is an attractive concept and the idea of flying a couple of thousand feet above unmetalled, potholed roads has got to be appealing. Whilst there may be some suspicion about its hot and high performance, you have to admire the designer's uncomplicated approach.
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It would not suprise me if the market for the car/plane was in emerging and massively deregulated economies e.g. China where any enterpreneur can knock up a runway in his back yard.
Maybe underdeveloped countries will provide the market (and may not be too stringent about licences)?
Last edited by sharksandwich; 29th Sep 2009 at 15:22. Reason: slepping
Kolibear, did you actually look at the Skycar? The buggy part has suspension that is evidently designed to cope with more than the rabbit holes which would have Cessnas limping off the maintenance hangar. If the wheels can be powered during the takeoff run, the initial acceleration should also be considerably better than the average light plane.
The wing is a fabric parafoil, and as the one & two man foot-launched versions go into a sack, there is no reason why this one shouldn't, albeit a slightly larger sack. No doubt a vacuum connection on the engine air inlet could be used to draw the air out of the bag and make it a bit more compact for in-car storage.
Sewing machine to repair sack or wing? Both.
Pilot DAR, your points are all valid in the context of Western Europe, and most of North America, but what about those airstrips in Africa and other parts of the world, which don't have an Avis rep waiting with your car keys? What about those places which don't have a hurricane-proof hangar in which to push your tens of square metres of easily dented 20swg aluminium?
If the Skycar is used in the UK in its current form, it would be as a toy. Most self-piloted flights in the UK, once flight planning and pre-flights are taken into account, don't save much time compared to driving; so unless you intend travelling from Cornwall to West Wales, for example, you are probably better off staying on the ground.
Practical flying cars are unlikely to catch on here, all the time that the human is the weak link in the system. The average man or woman in the street struggles to navigate on the surface of the planet with the help of roadsigns, Tom Toms & street atlases. The chaos and ensuing carnage if Joe Public takes to the air and has to navigate himself, through a presumably, very crowded sky, defies imagination (just imagine what15 million mode S transponder signals would do to for an Air Traffic Controller's blood pressure...).
As a tool in the third world the Skycar already has a place. When the take off, flight control and navigation and subsequent landing can all be automated, then a mass-produced G-xxxx reg. flying car may become a reality here too.
The wing is a fabric parafoil, and as the one & two man foot-launched versions go into a sack, there is no reason why this one shouldn't, albeit a slightly larger sack. No doubt a vacuum connection on the engine air inlet could be used to draw the air out of the bag and make it a bit more compact for in-car storage.
Sewing machine to repair sack or wing? Both.
Pilot DAR, your points are all valid in the context of Western Europe, and most of North America, but what about those airstrips in Africa and other parts of the world, which don't have an Avis rep waiting with your car keys? What about those places which don't have a hurricane-proof hangar in which to push your tens of square metres of easily dented 20swg aluminium?
If the Skycar is used in the UK in its current form, it would be as a toy. Most self-piloted flights in the UK, once flight planning and pre-flights are taken into account, don't save much time compared to driving; so unless you intend travelling from Cornwall to West Wales, for example, you are probably better off staying on the ground.
Practical flying cars are unlikely to catch on here, all the time that the human is the weak link in the system. The average man or woman in the street struggles to navigate on the surface of the planet with the help of roadsigns, Tom Toms & street atlases. The chaos and ensuing carnage if Joe Public takes to the air and has to navigate himself, through a presumably, very crowded sky, defies imagination (just imagine what15 million mode S transponder signals would do to for an Air Traffic Controller's blood pressure...).
As a tool in the third world the Skycar already has a place. When the take off, flight control and navigation and subsequent landing can all be automated, then a mass-produced G-xxxx reg. flying car may become a reality here too.
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Ford Pinto flying car:
T3.comAmerican engineers Henry Smolinski and Harold Blake had a crazy dream. They wanted to build the first flying car, so they bolted the wings of a Cessna light aircraft to the roof of a Ford Pinto, fitted it with cabin controls and named it the Mizar.
The Mizar would transport owners to airports, where they would detach the wings and drive merrily away.
After two years of development, the inventors took the car on a test flight, with Blake piloting. Once aloft, the wings came off, leaving pilot and passenger hurtling towards the ground in a pimped-out Ford Pinto.
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