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A flying car or roadable aircraft is a type of vehicle which can function both as a road vehicle and as an aircraft. As used here, this includes vehicles which drive as motorcycles when on the road. The term "flying car" is also sometimes used to include hovercars and/or VTOL personal air vehicles. Many prototypes have been built since the early 20th century, using a variety of flight technologies. Most have been designed to take off and land conventionally using a runway. Although VTOL projects are increasing, none has yet been built in more than a handful of numbers.
A fixed-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air flying machine, such as an airplane, which is capable of flight using wings that generate lift caused by the aircraft's forward airspeed and the shape of the wings. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotary-wing aircraft, and ornithopters. The wings of a fixed-wing aircraft are not necessarily rigid; kites, hang gliders, variable-sweep wing aircraft and airplanes that use wing morphing are all examples of fixed-wing aircraft.
The ERCO Ercoupe is an American low-wing monoplane aircraft that was first flown in 1937. It was originally manufactured by the Engineering and Research Corporation (ERCO) shortly before World War II; several other manufacturers continued its production after the war. The final model, the Mooney M-10, first flew in 1968 and the last model year was 1970. It was designed to be the safest fixed-wing aircraft that aerospace engineering could provide at the time, and the type continues to enjoy a faithful following.
The Rutan VariEze is a composite, canard aircraft designed by Burt Rutan. It is a high-performance homebuilt aircraft, hundreds of which have been constructed. The design later evolved into the Long-EZ and other, larger cabin canard aircraft. The VariEze is notable for popularizing the canard configuration and moldless glass cloth composite construction for homebuilt aircraft.
Aerocar International's Aerocar was an American roadable aircraft designed and built by Moulton Taylor in Longview, Washington in 1949. Although six examples were made, it never entered large-scale production. It is considered one of the first practical flying cars.
The Bowers Fly Baby is a homebuilt, single-seat, open-cockpit, wood and fabric low-wing monoplane that was designed by famed United States aircraft designer and Boeing historian, Peter M. Bowers.
The Rutan Quickie is a lightweight single-seat taildragger aircraft of composite construction, configured with tandem wings.
An airplane, or aeroplane, informally plane, is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurations. The broad spectrum of uses for airplanes includes recreation, transportation of goods and people, military, and research. Worldwide, commercial aviation transports more than four billion passengers annually on airliners and transports more than 200 billion tonne-kilometers of cargo annually, which is less than 1% of the world's cargo movement. Most airplanes are flown by a pilot on board the aircraft, but some are designed to be remotely or computer-controlled such as drones.
The Flying Flea is a large family of light homebuilt aircraft first flown in 1933.
The SAI-Ambrosini SS.4 was an Italian fighter prototype developed in the late 1930s, featuring a canard-style wing layout and a pusher propeller. Development of the SS.4 was abandoned after the prototype crashed on its second flight.
The Parker Jeanie's Teenie, or JT-1, is a single-seat, single-engine sport aircraft first built in the United States in 1967 and marketed for homebuilding. It was featured on the cover of a Popular Mechanics magazine issue in May, 1968. The caption on the cover read, "Build This 'Flying Volkswagen' For Less Than $600!." The cost of materials has increased since the article's publication but the initial popularity of Parker's Jeanie's Teenie was high. The Teenie would be certified in the Experimental category in the US. A pilot license is required to fly one, as it is not considered an ultralight aircraft in the United States.
The Gotha G.VI was an experimental bomber aircraft designed and built in Germany during World War I.
The Smith DSA-1 Miniplane is a single-seat, single-engine sport aircraft designed in the United States in the 1950s and marketed for home building.
The Convair Model 118 ConvAirCar was a prototype flying car of which two were built. Intended for mainstream consumers, two prototypes were built and flown. The first prototype was lost in an accident due to fuel exhaustion. Subsequently, the second prototype was rebuilt from the damaged aircraft and flown. By that time, little enthusiasm remained for the project and the program ended shortly thereafter.
The Plane Driven PD-1 is a modification to the Glasair Sportsman 2+2 to convert it into a practical roadable aircraft. The approach is novel in that it uses a mostly stock aircraft with a modified landing gear "pod" that carries a separate engine for road propulsion.
The AVE Mizar was a roadable aircraft built between 1971 and 1973 by Advanced Vehicle Engineers (AVE) of Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California. The company was started by Henry Smolinski and Harold Blake, both graduates of Northrop Institute of Technology's aeronautical engineering school.
The Scaled Composites Model 367 BiPod is an experimental flying car developed by Scaled Composites. It was the final aircraft designed by Burt Rutan prior to his retirement.
The Waterman Arrowbile was a tailless, two-seat, single-engine, pusher configuration roadable aircraft built in the US in the late 1930s. One of the first of its kind, it flew safely but generated little customer interest, and only five were produced.
The Samson Switchblade is an American amateur-built roadable aircraft, under development by Samson Motorworks of Meadow Vista, California. It was publicly introduced at AirVenture in 2009 in mock-up form. The aircraft is intended to be supplied as a kit for amateur construction initially and possibly as a complete ready-to-fly-aircraft in the future.
The Quickie Q2 or Q2 is a two-seat version of the unique Rutan Quickie, produced in kit form by the Quickie Aircraft Corporation founded by Tom Jewett and Gene Sheehan. Canadian Garry LeGare was involved in the design.
References
- ↑ Canadian Patent Office. Canadian Patent Office record, Volume 47, Part 2.
- ↑ "First flying car goes under the hammer" . Retrieved 14 January 2011.
- 1 2 "The Skorback roadable Airplane". Sport Aviation. January 1958.
- ↑ "Oldest existing flying car headed to auction" . Retrieved 14 April 2011.