Finally, the flying car may have landed

It sure does not look like any kind of car you would want to drive on the road.

 

There hasn't been nor will there ever be a workable combination of an airplane and a car. It's a poor airplane, poor car. Good airplane, bad car. Bad airplane, good car. You can't have both. As a car, one minor collision on the road would ground the airplane part and still make it a bad car and a worse airplane.

 

Looks like an Icon A5 crashed into the back of a gayardo

 

I dunno. There's a ton of compromises made to cars today. I can see it in a quirky kind of way.

My problem is the front suspension is TOO LOW! Geez you can't land on anything less than a billiard table -- and with no wind.

 

And we have not even discussed things that I see wrong with it as an airplane...

 

The FAA doesn't really want pilots flying, let alone the general public!
FCMEL

 

Exactly, although all we have is a picture. But lets not let that get in the way. lol

First thought is they must have a wing AOI mechanism, ala Vought A-7, to allow it to take-off and land in a level stance. Without that it could not rotate. Or it is designed like the B-52.

 

I agree 100%. For that matter, look at the Amphicar-- lousy car, lousy boat.

 

The regulatory and safety demands placed on automobiles make them rather heavy and to the best of my knowledge is contraindicated in airplane design.

It is a real stretch to think that someone will be able to build something that will satisfy all the demands of the FAA, DOT, EPA, NHTSA.

 

Good point.

 

That prop would have to be fully shrouded, too. Cannot have the public doing a Bassomatic on themselves. Dangerous letting most of them around a moving fanbelt.

 

Hence why the Terrafugia has received exemptions from both the FAA and NHTSA.

 

I thought of that, also, but sort of tossed the whole thing out as pretty bogus.

 

And that will work just fine until it loses in a crash with a Smart Car and the entire legal profession turns on it and the politicians that went along with such a fundamentally stupid idea.

 

No Bob. Just use hydraulics on the front suspension like a low rider. Get up to rotation speed and bounce the front end a time or two.

 

IIRC Boeing considered that for the 777-300 MLG, in part to mitigate required rotation that would have otherwise resulted in low margin on tail strike.

 

Such decisions are based as much on economics and other critieria as they are on maintaining safety. Plenty of exemptions and ELS (findings of Equivalent Level of Safety) are granted for commercial aircraft.

 

Well put...

By the time you put a real road going suspension, gearbox and tires on a typical light plane, you've used up 25% of the useful load. Then you have wheels that are huge (by airplane standards) hanging out in the breeze and creating a lot of drag..

It's kind of one of those things that, just because you can doesn't mean that you should....

 

When I saw the title of the thread, I first thought it was going to be about that weird old investment-swindler guy in California with the thing that had 8 little hyper-turbo-wankel fans.

Another magnificent failure in this field.

 

Moller M200G Volantor - Ask.com Encyclopedia

Moller M400 Skycar - Ask.com Encyclopedia

 

This.

 

Flying cars won't become a reality until everything is automated. Once automation occurs, they become a little more realistic. Until then...

 

I think Terrafugia will surprise everyone.

 

A recent article on AvWeb states that 35 deg. flaps will be used on take off instead of rotation.