Excellent, a new skycar prototype will be travelling from London to Timbuctoo, via ground and air. There is a nostalgic coolness about skycars as they reflect a legacy future where 1940s starlets are rescued by a world of modern skyscrapers and heroes in jetpacks. In reality, the car will be driven by the SAS and the Foreign Office provides its doleful advice that adventures are ‘dangerous’. Couldn’t they go to Cleethorpes instead and why can’t we force them to, thinks the man from the FO?
As well as natural barriers, the team has been warned about the threat of kidnap in volatile parts of Africa and the car will have to negotiate a minefield in Mauretania – “I might fly that one,” said 45-year-old expedition leader Neil Laughton.
When the need for flight arises – estimated to be for 40% of the journey – a ParaWing, a parachute of the type used by paragliders, will be dragged behind the modified off-road buggy and the propeller on the back of the vehicle will boost the Skycar down whatever happens to be serving as an improvised runway. When it reaches 45mph, enough lift should be generated to get the car airborne, its weight supported only by “a silk handkerchief, a large one at that”, said Laughton.
The adventure is referred to as an element of “mad Brits“, another phrase redolent of passing qualities. More details on the car can be found here, though one must accept that not all prototypes will be stylish Italian jobs. This one looks more like a souped up Dune buggy.
While the car is cool, I am extremely fascinated with the backpack prop motor!
http://www.parajet.com/index.php?id=18
This is the first real innovative approach to the “flying car” problem I’ve seen com out since people first began attaching wood and metal wings to the family grocery getter.
The standard-issue car is far too heavy to be a practical flyer, and the typical airplane is far too wide to use most roads. Finally someone quit trying to build a 4 wheeled Cessna.
The dune buggy looks a little dodgy to me; watching the video of this thing taking off, it sways like a woman with a new boob job.
I suppose though in terms of bang for the buck, it is uncomparable.
Many dream of flying cars, and that will only ever be a dream; flying cars will certainly never be available to the general public. The reason? Most of us have no business maneuvering a flying machine in any sort of airspace.