Are you sure they’re possible? I’m not an engineer, but I’d have guessed there are still some problems to solve, like finding a means of propulsion that doesn’t require huge landing pads, and controls that the average car driver could learn and master in a reasonably short period of time.
VTOLs are possible. Many UAVs are VTOL aircraft. Make a bigger one that can carry a person and a few grocery bags instead of a sensor battery, add some wheels for “Ground Mode”, and you’ve essentially got a flying car. An extremely impractical, high-maintenance, high-cost, airspace-constricted, inefficient, power-hungry flying car that almost no one will want to buy, but a flying car nonetheless.
I’m not an expert either, but it seems to me like the difference between “flying car” and “helicopter with wheels” is mostly a question of distance in empirical thingspace-of-stuff-we-could-build, which is a design and fitness-for-purpose issue.
How broad is your classification of a “car?” If it’s fairly broad, then helicopters can reasonably be said to be flying cars. They require landing pads, but not necessarily “huge” ones depending on the type of helicopter, and one can earn a helicopter license with 40 hours of practical training.
Most people’s models of “flying cars,” for whatever reason, seem to entail no visible method of attaining lift though. By that criterion we can still be said to have flying cars, but maybe only ones that are pretty lousy at flying.
Are you sure they’re possible? I’m not an engineer, but I’d have guessed there are still some problems to solve, like finding a means of propulsion that doesn’t require huge landing pads, and controls that the average car driver could learn and master in a reasonably short period of time.
VTOLs are possible. Many UAVs are VTOL aircraft. Make a bigger one that can carry a person and a few grocery bags instead of a sensor battery, add some wheels for “Ground Mode”, and you’ve essentially got a flying car. An extremely impractical, high-maintenance, high-cost, airspace-constricted, inefficient, power-hungry flying car that almost no one will want to buy, but a flying car nonetheless.
I’m not an expert either, but it seems to me like the difference between “flying car” and “helicopter with wheels” is mostly a question of distance in empirical thingspace-of-stuff-we-could-build, which is a design and fitness-for-purpose issue.
How broad is your classification of a “car?” If it’s fairly broad, then helicopters can reasonably be said to be flying cars. They require landing pads, but not necessarily “huge” ones depending on the type of helicopter, and one can earn a helicopter license with 40 hours of practical training.
Most people’s models of “flying cars,” for whatever reason, seem to entail no visible method of attaining lift though. By that criterion we can still be said to have flying cars, but maybe only ones that are pretty lousy at flying.
The moller skycar certainly exists, although it appears to be still very much a prototype.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moller_M400_Skycar