The race is on to turn flying cars into reality

Published Jun 30, 2017

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Paris, France - Aeronautics giants are treating the idea of a flying car with caution, as such a project raises more questions than it answers. Experts say it's a child's dream, a millionaire's toy; but is it really the next big thing in transport? 

At the 2017 Paris Air Show, you had to search hard to find an aircraft that looked anything like a car, but one such model, the AeroMobil, was tucked away under the old Concordes at the Air and Space Museum, just outside the capital. This strange-looking hybrid, with its bulbous nose and retractable wings, designed by a Slovakian company, is scheduled to go into series production by 2020.

AeroMobil deputy head of engineering Simon Bendrey said: "After you've landed at an airport, you transform the plane into a car and take the road to wherever you want." 

And they's already received a number of orders, he added, despite an asking price of €1.2 - €1.5 million (R18 - R22 million).

Gyrocopter

While flying cars have starred in films including Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Fifth Element, the race to turn such dreams into a reality is being run by dozens of small creative start-ups such as 

Among those nearest to take-off is the Dutch outfit

, which is offering a two-seater gyrocopter that's scheduled to be available by 2018 -- a steal at €300 000 (R4.5 million). Czech company Nirvana Systems says it has had dozens of orders for its mini-helicopter, which can also travel on roads, albeit at rather sluggish ground speeds.

Silicon Valley-based company

says its Flyer will be on sale by the end of 2018, and just last week France's Pegase, a cross between a ultra-light plane and a mini-car, crossed the Channel between England and France.

Pegasus 1, built by French entrepreneur Jerome Dauffy. Picture: Michel Euler / AP

Bruno Sainjon, head of the French aerospace lab Onera, said on the sidelines of the Paris Air Show that, until recently, flying cars "were a cross between a bad car and a bad plane".

But there has recently been a quantum leap in design, thanks to vast improvements in the power of electric propulsion, linked largely to the rapid advances in drone technology.

Xavier Dutertre, director of the Techoplane project based in Normandy said such engines could now lift 80-100 kilograms.

"And we're not far from having the capacity to transport one or two people for about 20 minutes," he added. "In five to 10 years, that will have become commonplace."

While driving-flying hybrids may initially be the latest must-have gadgets for the ultra-rich, experts believe that such vehicles could actually be rapidly overtaken, as the industry sets its sights on fly-only solutions further down the line. 

'New era for aviation'

The real future, said Onera's Sainjon "is a system of on-demand air transport, which would clearly be the start of a new era for aviation - a flying taxi service, in other words".

Pascal Pincemin, an aerospace specialist with Deloitte, said flying cars would not be something that just anyone can drive, "because it's too risky". 

He envisaged digital platforms to manage the new form of traffic, and that appears to be what Uber, the App-based ride-hailing service, has in mind with its 

'project. The idea appears to be to develop a network of electric, vertical-takeoff aircraft and it's aiming to make the first demonstrations in 2020.

Dubai could be the first off the starting blocks with a new kind of small autonomous electric helicopter scheduled to come into operation later this year.

Pop Up

According to Jean Brice Dumont, head of engineering at Airbus Helicopters, there is "a real appetite, a real interest", in this kind of transport in some of the more traffic-congested cities. At the previous Geneva motor show, the company presented its own prototype flying car, "Pop Up", developed in cooperation with a subsidiary of Volkswagen, but Dumont said it was expecting the technology to mature and develop further.

Boeing, so far, has not shown its hand and Deloitte's Pincemin does not see flying taxis becoming a common mode of transport before 2050. First, he said, the vehicles would have to prove their reliability.

Patrick Cipriani, director of security at France's DGAC civil aviation directorate said air transport has a death rate of 0.2 per million flights.

"Will we be prepared to accept levels like those of light aircraft, which are 100 times less safe?" he asked.

Agence France-Presse

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