Hollister, California - From Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to The Jetsons and Back To The Future, the idea of a flying car has grabbed the imagination of film and television writers for years.
Flying cars are nothing new, of course; Moulton Taylor built six examples of his Lycoming-powered Aerocar in the 1950s, one of which is still flying regularly in Florida, and prototypes of the Terrafugia Transition have been flying since since 2008.
The Slovakian Aeromobil effort, however, suffered a major setback in May 2015 when company founder Stefan Klein crashed the one and only airworthy example from a height of about 300 metres. Klein walked away, but the Aeromobil was trashed.
But the wait for a workable aerocar may soon be over - after Google co-founder Larry Page secretly spent more than $100 million (R1.5 billion) developing not one but two designs.
The Silicon Valley mogul has kept his dream project under wraps for six years, but reportedly has two firms competing to be first to launch their designs.
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Recent breakthroughs with electric cars have fast-tracked possibilities for a vehicle that can take off and land vertically.
Google is already developing self-driving cars while plans for drone-powered deliveries by firms such as Amazon are in the prototype stage.
And other cutting edge projects by web entrepreneurs are paying dividends. PayPal founder Elon Musk’s private firm, SpaceX, is already delivering cargo loads to the International Space Station and has pioneered reusable launch rockets. Meanwhile Page is funding two companies dedicated to car flight in Northern California - Zee.Aero and Kitty Hawk.
Witnesses describe the latest version of the Zee.Aero flying cars as having a narrow body with a bulbous cockpit (not unlike the Jetsons’ car) with enough room for one person upfront and a wing at the back. The ‘aerocars’ are said to be ‘pushers’ with two propellers situated at the rear.
When the craft take off at the Hollister Municipal Airport test base, witnesses say, they sound like air raid sirens. About a dozen firms around the world are said to be working on prototypes - but Page’s research is said to be most advanced.
Also read: Aeromobil is a practical flying car
NASA aeronautical engineer Mark Moore said: “Over the past five years, there have been tremendous advances in the underlying technology; what appears in the next five to 10 years will be incredible.”
Paul Moller, an engineering professor at California University who has pioneered several flying car attempts, added: “Building an autopilot for an aircraft is so much easier than what the car companies are trying to do with self-driving cars.”
Electric motors are quieter and safer and have far fewer moving parts than internal combustion engines or conventional turbines. They are also cheaper and more secure.
Zee.Aero, based right next to Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, is said to have about 150 employees.
Sebastian Thrun, responsible for much of Google’s self-driving car project, is its president. Kitty Hawk, a smaller venture, has about a dozen engineers, and is working on ‘something that resembles a giant version of a quadcopter drone’. Page refused to comment.
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