Pictured is one of the few "enclosed" models
Posted on 02/14/2017 12:59:54 PM PST by Red Badger
The flying car is here.
For $400,000, you can buy a very nice Rolls-Royce Dawn. Or you can purchase something slightly less sleek but more versatile: a flying car.
Dutch company PAL-V is now taking orders for the world’s first commercial flying car, the Liberty. The company says that the Liberty models are fully compliant with safety regulations set by global governing bodies, and that deliveries will begin by the end of 2018.
The first 90 copies are designated as Pioneer Editions, boasting special exterior and interior details. For the personalized touch and additional standard features such as power heating, buyers will have to pay $599,000. After the Pioneer Edition sells out, PAL-V will start selling the standard model, known as the Liberty Sport, for $399,000.
“PAL-V deliberately chose to engineer, design and build a flying car with proven technologies and fully compliant with existing regulations,” the company said in a press release today. “This leads to a first product delivery date that is realistic and imminent.” PAL-V expects North America to be a major market for its flying car.
Buyers should have a license for both driving and flying. On the road, the Liberty can lower its suspension and make use of its tilting cockpit for better maneuverability. PAL-V lists top speed on the road as 100 mph, while 0-62 mph is estimated to take less than 9 seconds. In the air, it can travel at up to 112 mph.
PAL-V may be the first company to bring a flying car to market, but it isn’t the only one in the game. Airbus is another potential player and says it will have a prototype by the end of the year.
Do you think PAL-V’s flying car will take off in the U.S.? Tell us in the comments below.
Source: PAL-V
All this flying cars nonsense. Yes, the technology has been around for awhile, but it just won’t happen.
Look, for $600,000 I could probably pick up a nice Bell Jet Ranger or, even cheaper, I could probably build some kit deal. However, I am never going to get FAA clearance to fly — whatever — below 500 feet and land in some mall parking lot or any area with nearby buildings, power lines, and people.
I can picture it now, some Hip Hop mogul or some trust fund kid buys one, even with a pilot’s license, and does something stupid (i.e., not out of character) and instead of killing one or two people on the road, he/she/it kills dozens or more of people after crashing into any number of structures that can cause secondary explosions or results.
Nice to dream of a purer time I suppose.
Yup, the model discussed in the article has the advantage of 50 years of technological advancement, but the concept is not a new one.
A solution desperately in search of a problem.
>with a pilot’s license, and does something stupid (i.e., not out of character) and instead of killing one or two people on the road, he/she/it kills dozens or more of people after crashing into any number of structures that can cause secondary explosions<
.
Or some muzzie loading it up with explosives and flying it into a tall building or some white structure in WDC.
Oh wait...
I cannot see as it is worth it to be dragging that package around when you are on the road in a cramped little car like that except for getting ahead of the Jonses this year or keeping up with them next year.
It’s an autogyro; note the pusher prop behind the fuselage.
"But dad, I was only trying to moon the party!" he said after crashing into 50 of his "friends" next to the pool.
I'm pretty sure I've seen them a lot cheaper.
Really stupid. The general public is not fit to drive cars, let alone fly planes.
It is. A tricycle gyrocopter.
I’ve been following the PAL-V development for years and am deeply disappointed in this short-sighted final rollout.
They tout the fact that they are using off-the shelf technology, and then try to market the vehicle for $400K ? Why ? They don’t have a huge R&D cost to make back, nor do they have a huge tooling cost if they are using off-the-shelf tech. Clearly they do not EXPECT to be able to sell very many of them and think they must make all their money off just a few hundred units. If they were convinced they had a viable product that would sell in the hundreds of thousands of units, they would charge under $100K. As it is, somebody could afford to buy a separate sports car and helicopter, both of which would perform better than this and cost less.
Sell a flying car for under $50K and the world will beat a path to your door. At $400K, nobody will be lining up and your doors will close quickly.
Well these Foreign Imports are slightly higher.................
I doubt they will be allowed to fly within 10 miles of city limits. And that limit will be enforced by having all controls be fly-by-wire and a traffic controller remotely taking control and ground you while cops meet you on the ground to confiscate your half million dollar rig. Plus the armed helicopter patrols constantly overhead that will shoot you down if the remote takeover fails.
Not a chance.
I am an instrument rated private pilot (no longer active). You need at least 100 hours of in-flight instruction and at least 100 more hours pilot-in-command experience to get such a rating. Just to get a fair weather license is 20 plus 20 hours minimum. Only a fraction of that time is spent learning to control an airplane, The rest is about navigation, Federal Aviation Rules, and in the case of an IFR rating dealing with the Air Traffic Control system.
And all these things work because there's hardly anybody up there. Put tens of thousands of additional aircraft in the air, most of them presumably at low altitude, and none of them with functional breaking; and you're really asking for chaos.
ML/NJ
That has always seemed like a kludged design to me.
Why not have a lightweight aerodynamic shell with wings that the car pulls into from behind like going up the rear ramp of a cargo plane ? Closed up it would be fully aero unlike the clamp-on wing-prop assembly in this photo.
The rear wheels of the car could ride on a roller system to transfer the power of the car’s drive train to props on the wings, while pads under the front wheels transfer steering impetus to the rudders. Then you just need to control elevation and you’re all set.
Of course, running most car engines continuously at the power level required for flight would be beyond most cars.
Culling the herd...................
I suppose there are plenty of rural areas that would allow overflight but have bad or indirect road routes that would make 112mph flight a real benefit to a long commute.
Flying 50 miles from the country estate to the outskirts of town in 30 minutes instead of 90 minutes is bound to appeal to the well-heeled types who could afford $400K for this contraption.
Places like NYC have helipads even in the city so they might be able to get closer than the outskirts. Nobody seems to worry much in NYC about those helicopters crashing on their heads or into buildings.
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