FINALLY! A FLYING CAR!

mikea

mikea

Touchdown! Greaser!
Gone West
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iWin
No, not that one.

This thing will launch itself without any pilot input,” says Cardozo. “You just open it up and it goes. The more power you put on, the faster you go until you come off the ground [at 35mph]. The wing will basically lock above you [once airborne] and stay there, without weaving, at speeds of up to 80mph.”

Fully road-legal - the car passed the government’s single vehicle approval test last month - and designed to run on bioethanol, Cardozo’s Skycar is powered by a modified 140bhp Yamaha R1 superbike engine with a lightweight automatic CVT (continuously variable transmission) gear-box from a snowmobile. It boasts Ferrari-beating acceleration on land, an air speed of up to 80mph and can swap between road and flight modes in minutes.

“The fan’s static when you’re driving around,” says Cardozo. “The engineering challenge was getting a really reliable system that will switch power between wheels or fan.”

With chief pilot and expedition organiser Neil Laughton, Cardozo will fly and drive the two-seater more than 3,700 miles to Timbuktu. Setting off on January 14, they will take about 40 days to reach the city in Mali, west Africa, whose name is a byword for the back end of beyond (a recent survey found a third of young Britons claimed not to believe that Timbuktu exists).

...

If the buggy’s 1000cc engine fails in the air, the machine is designed to glide back to earth for an emergency landing, like any aircraft. But it’s also equipped with an emergency, rocket-launched parachute in case the canopy collapses.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/features/article5106213.ece
Click to expand...

A gotta figure that reeling in the wing on landing so it's usable again is bit tricky.
 

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Now thats probably the smartest design for a Sky Car yet. I would be willing to be that this one may just be a success. I can tell you that it has peaked my interest and the price is not terrible either.
 
Cool. There was one many years ago too, that was a shaft drive motorcycle powering a pusher prop under a weight shift delta ragwing. All towable behind the cycle when not airborne.
 
Meh, its been done before. May I present the flying AMC Matador!!!
 

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How 'bout this one? Was in AOPA's blog this morning. Roadable trike motorcycle, telescoping wing, canard, 130 mph (hasn't flown yet):

http://blog.aopa.org/blog/?p=669&WT.mc_id=081128epilot&WT.mc_sect=gan

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Looks like something Burt Rutan would have designed.
 

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Where's the rudder? And Spike, did you see they do intend to "certify" it? As well as kit built.
 
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