A Flying Cars

1
Flying Cars Future of Transportation

• Flying car has been a long sought-after dream
  that remains to be realised till now.
• Many mobile giants have been working of late on
  the concept.
• Terrafugia, a American company has already built
  a prototype that has been tested - Terrafugia
  Transition.
• Notwithstanding above, a Slovakian Company
  AeroMobile has also designed and successfully
  tested its flying car prototype AeroMobile 3.0.
• German brand Volkwagen had also worked on a
  little different concept called hover car.
• Zee.Aero backed by NASA scientist and Aeronautics
  expert Ilan Kroo has designed a prototype of VTOL
  vehicle.

2
Flying cars- Future of Transportation

• Besides, some people intend to built a flying car
  that can back military and rescue operations.
  X-Hawk designed by Urban Aeronautics is the
  example.
• In a significant development, both AeroMobil and
  Terrafugia Transition have done successful maiden
  flights in the previous decade.
• AeroMobile has announced its intentions to launch
  its semi-autonomous prototype in 2017.
• A parachute-powered model of a flyable car
  Skyrunner is actually available now after a
  deposit of 5000.
• Both AeroMobile and Terrafugia intend to upgrade
  their designed prototypes to more autonomous
  version with better computer controls and
  pre-assigned destination.

3
Flying Cars- Future of Transportation

• Terrafugia is accepting pre-orders on making of
  flying car model and the total estimated cost for
  Terrafugia Transition updated in 2011 was
  279,000.
• AeroMobile has also hinted on the availability of
  AeroMobile at initial launch at a formidable cost
  that could be afforded by rich who have a flair
  to fly.
• Zee.aero has developed a model which can be seen
  in some American patents with desirable features
  (US 20130214086 A1) but more of fabrication
  technology and creative designing is being worked
  on it.
• X-Hawk may be used for medical evaluation and
  rescue missions for civialian operations besides
  being used for executive transport.

4
Some features of Terrafugia Transition

• Light sport aircraft that is roadable.
• Flight range 425nmi, 787 km.
• Carbon-fibre body, length 6.02m, wingspan length
  8.08m
• Powerplant consists of Piston-powered engine
  Rotax 912ULS (100hp_at_5800rpm).
• Prototype Sensenich 3 BladeRotax Ground
  Adjustable Propellers.
• Maximum speed on road 110km/h, cruise
  speed172km/h, stall speed is 62 km/h.
• Certifications required by owner FAA and FMVSS.

5
Selective feature Of Aeromobil 3.0

• Vehicle can accommodate 2 passengers.
• Length 6 m, wingspan 8.2 m.
• Powerplant consists of engine with 1 Rotax 912
  four cylinder horizontally-opposed liquid with
  air-cooled piston.
• Engine power 75 kW (100hp).
• Maximum speed 200km/h and stall speed 60km/h.
• Range is 700 km.
• Flight-fuel consumption 15l.
• AeroMobil s.r.o. is expected to be launched
  commercially by 2017.

6
Features Skyrunner

• Developed with the assistance of Britain based
  Parajet International.
• Gets converted to flight mode in 3 minutes.
• 1-litre boost engine
• Range 500miles on road and 200 nautical miles in
  air.
• Maximum altitude 10,000 feet above sea level.
• Speed 60mph can be attained in 4.3 seconds.
• Flight control- ( 2 intuitive controls) left
  and right steering via handheld toggle and a
  throttle pedal to ascend to descend.
• Requires 12 hours of lessons and above 17years
  age.
• Parachute-powered technology for car very safe
  and convenient to handle.

7
Features Zee.Aero

• Canard wing arrangement- a design with payload
  area surrounded by front and rear set of wings.
• Mutiple vertical lift-rotors and forward thrust
  propellers.
• Horizontal stabiliser fitted in front .
• Battery-powered electrical engines running
  propellers.
• Carbon-fibre has been used as primary building
  material.
• VTOL capable flying car capable of being parked
  in standard parking zone of a shopping complex.

8
Volkswagens Concept of Hover Car

• Volkswagen has been working on concept of Hover
  car.
• Looks like a doughnut and can adjust two
  passengers on a self-driven pre-determined path.
• The concept requires electromagnetic plates
  fitted in roads to be workable, thus it did not
  pick off though it was very cool in design and
  functioning.
• Volkswagen included this in peoples car project
  along with 2 other car projects- Hover car, Music
  Car, Smart key.
• Music car could change the music played in the
  car with the change in colour of clothes of the
  driver.
• Smart Key is a car concept wherein a smartphone
  could be used to control functions of a car.

9
X-Hawk Rescue Operations and Military Support
Vehicle

• Flying car concept used to help military and
  rescue needs
• Design patented as Fancraft.
• VTOL enabled vehicle with shrouded rotors, tandem
  fans with turbine-powered vehicle.
• Maximum speed 249 km/h
• Altitude reached 3700m, endurance limit 2 hrs
  flight time.
• Various models for different purposes have been
  proposed and being worked upon- X-Hawk LE Law
  enforcement and X-Hawk EMS for Emergency Medical
  Services.
• X-Hawk can accomodate nearly 10 people and is
  expected to work at places where helicopter
  functioning is impracticable.

10
Cost Price and Commercial Availablity of Flying
Cars

• Terrafugia Transition had a scheduled expected
  launch between years 2015 and 2017. Its estimated
  price in the initial stage was US 194000. But
  in December 2011, the price was upgraded to US
  294,000. After successful maiden flight by
  Transition, the company wants to build a
  semi-autonomous version which can fly on a
  pre-determined path and have more safety in bad
  weather and low visibility conditions. The
  company has named it Terrafugia TF-X and if built
  successfully till scheduled time of 2018, would
  undergo extensive testing for a launch till 2025
  at an obviously higher price.
• Earlier it was expected that the Transition model
  would be launched with an upgraded price in 2016.
• Skyrunner is very affordable as compared to
  roadable aircrafts being available for 19,000
  and booking price of 5000.

11
Limitations

• Airspace Countries where the airspace is already
  crowded, the flying cars may not be permitted as
  they would not prove useful there./moreover, the
  introduction would cause increase in nuisance and
  reduce the safety standards of air-travel.
• Flying cars use lower altitude to navigate, thus
  imminent dangers of obstructions due to long
  trees, high-tension wires, towers are present.
• Take-off and landing in flying cars require at
  least 2 meters long runway in most cases. Also,
  the runway should be obstruction-free. Thus
  avoiding traffic jams by putting on flight mode
  is not feasible. Even for any VTOL vehicles that
  may develop in future (just a speculation), the
  idea of multiple VTOL vehicles all-of sudden
  trying to take-off from a traffic jam is not a
  welcome idea. It would make air-traffic scene
  unsafe, bizarre and complicated.

12
LIMITATIONS

• Bad weather conditions For pilot driven flying
  cars, bad weather, low-visibility, and night-time
  conditions are definitively limiting conditions.
  Even trained pilots find it difficult to handle
  bad-weather conditions during aircraft flights.
• Huge maintenance The flying car requires
  intensive maintenance for being in a perfectly
  workable condition. Also, the technical failures
  encountered in road car management are quite
  manageable as compared to those in aircraft. For
  example if there is depletion of fuel in
  aircraft, it is a totally different condition
  from depletion of fuel in a car.

13
Reference

• http//aflyingcars.com/