Brace Yourself: It Looks Like Flying Cars Are About To Be A Thing

With the unveiling of the latest Dutch attempt to build a flying car, we had a look around and it seems there are plenty of people trying to achieve the same thing. We don't know whether to be excited or terrified
Brace Yourself: It Looks Like Flying Cars Are About To Be A Thing

More and more companies seem to be having a go at making a flying car. You might have already seen the PAL-V Liberty, which has emerged with plans for customer deliveries at the end of next year.

Believe it or not, though, the Dutch firm isn’t the only one trying to conquer both sky and road in one vehicle. Here’s a list of the dual-purpose fly-drive machines you need (or maybe not) to know about.

1. PAL-V Liberty

Image: PAL-V
Image: PAL-V

This one should be fresh in your memory. Built with a Rotax twin-engine drivetrain, the Liberty uses a rear-mounted rotor connected to a 197bhp powerplant to provide thrust in the air, while another engine with half the power provides the motive force on land. A large fuel tank is good for a 310-mile range in the air and more than 800 miles on land. Changing from car configuration to flying mode takes about 10 minutes.

2. Dubai RTA/Ehang 184

Image: YouTube/Ehang
Image: YouTube/Ehang

People in Dubai have lots of money and lots of places to be. To combat the rising problem of traffic, the city’s own Roads and Transport Authority has presented a flying ‘car’ idea at the World Government Summit going on as this article was being written.

It’s basically a large-scale drone, powered only by electricity and fully automated. Yep, it’s electric and autonomous. We haven’t even got there with cars, yet, so this should be fun. Occupants simply use the in-built sat-nav to pick a destination, presumably with a helipad, and away the 184 goes.

3. Terrafugia Transition

Brace Yourself: It Looks Like Flying Cars Are About To Be A Thing

In flight, the first effort from Terrafugia to make our list looks like one of those cutesy model planes you see little kids playing with at airports. Stubby wings, an oversized cockpit and two tail fins are powered along by a rear-facing engine and rotor, just like the PAL-V Liberty.

Apparently it’s good for 30mpg on the road, while in the air it can beat the traffic at 115mph with a range of about 400 miles. The price, in 2009, was said to be around £137,000. According to the model’s Wikipedia page, it’s still under development…

4. AeroMobil 3.0

Brace Yourself: It Looks Like Flying Cars Are About To Be A Thing

Able to take off on any smooth grass strip or roadway in the world, the Slovakian Aeromobil 3.0 is arguably one of the best looking attempts at building a flying car. It has two years of real-world testing under its belt, too, making sure that its advanced composite body, wings and wheels hold up to the abuse.

It reportedly needs 200-250 metres to get airborne depending on which report you believe, and as little as 50-90 metres to land. It has a top speed in the air of 124mph. Wired once called it the world’s most advanced flying car, but Terrafugia might have something to say about that.

5. Terrafugia TF-X

Brace Yourself: It Looks Like Flying Cars Are About To Be A Thing

The company that is apparently still trying to make the Transition, above, a commercial reality, has made our list for a second time. The TF-X was revealed in 2015, three years after the Transition should have revolutionised personal transport for the rich and famous. But didn’t. Dubbed ‘the flying car for all of us’ by its makers, it uses a plug-in hybrid powertrain that powers both the wheels and the rotors.

Range is said to be 500 miles in the air at an impressive cruising speed of 200mph, and even more surprisingly the TF-X is designed, we’re told, to take off and land more or less vertically. Revealing one of the major hurdles the Transition faced, the TF-X will take far less training time and require just a standard US driving licence, meaning any idiot could fly one. Surely this can only end in disaster…

Comments

The_Import_Kid

This was the original flying car.

02/13/2017 - 19:11 |
30 | 4

Ahem?

02/13/2017 - 19:19 |
41 | 3
TurboToddler (Straight-five)

I doubt this’ll become big anytime soon, considering the curren fear of terrorism in the western world.

02/13/2017 - 19:12 |
7 | 3
Anonymous

[DELETED]

02/13/2017 - 19:12 |
1 | 1
Valanti Demetriades

I think car throttle has been retired and is now taken over by plane throttle

02/13/2017 - 19:13 |
109 | 2

Ikr. There was no activity from the staff almost the whole day. I was thinking “Is it still Sunday?” LOL

02/13/2017 - 20:28 |
30 | 1
Squishylemur

The TX-5 looks like a Mclaren Mp4 and Tesla roadster hybrid

02/13/2017 - 19:29 |
2 | 0
Anonymous
02/13/2017 - 19:33 |
10 | 0
Anonymous

Guess chavs who fly these are called flicers

02/13/2017 - 19:33 |
13 | 0
Anonymous

GTA cheat activated: flying cars

02/13/2017 - 19:33 |
62 | 1
Splash

It won’t happen…. ever! Everyone single one of these loonies is wasting their money.

Think….. 9/11…. think ….. a car filled with fuel owned by a disgruntled ex employee flown into a building the day after they were fired.

02/13/2017 - 20:00 |
11 | 1
Anonymous

In reply to by Splash

Never underestimate the stupidity of people

02/14/2017 - 23:29 |
2 | 0
Ricardo Mercio

In reply to by Splash

personal flying vehicles will only be viable when a mainframe can run self-piloting vehicles. Then it’ll be about as safe as being on the road. For now, disgruntled employees will have to stick with airplanes and black market hand grenades.

06/05/2017 - 19:03 |
0 | 0
Lovely Puppeteer

Flying cars are cool and all, but without flying instruction and considering how lousy many people drive, I can’t imagine the disasters with flying cars. So many accidents already happen on the ground, imagine in the air!

02/13/2017 - 20:08 |
3 | 0

I don’t think so. Flying is statistically the safest method of transportation. You can see why. Stricter maintenance guidelines, the ability to go up and down as well as left and right, and, in the case of some aircraft, proximity sensors that warn you that you’re too close to the ground or another aircraft.

02/22/2017 - 18:21 |
0 | 0

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