On the ground, components like side-view mirrors are important, but in the air, they just slow the aircraft down. On the other hand, cars need to be wide and heavy enough to create downforce and stay on the road. One of the primary issues is that the concept merges two completely different technologies intended for entirely different jobs.įor engineers, there are two sets of requirements for flying cars, most of which conflict with each other.įor example, for an airplane to be aerodynamic and have enough lift, it needs to be light and narrow. But, obviously, it is a little more complex than that. The short answer is they are incredibly complicated things to design and build. This is for a variety of reasons, but the failure of these vehicles to become a practical reality has led to the catchphrase "Where's my flying car?" Source: Klein Vision Emphasis on the the adverb "yet", but more on that later. Of these, very few have progressed beyond the prototype stage, and, as yet, none are have proved to be commercially viable. Generally speaking, most of them have been designed to take off and land conventionally using a runway, but vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) examples are becoming more common. Many prototypes of flying cars have been attempted throughout and beyond the early 20th century, each using a variety of different flight technologies. "In short, combined wing capabilities make flying cars possible, and autonomy makes them viable," he adds. "Software development in the field of autonomous systems is a crucial component in making these vehicles not just an interesting research project, but also an appealing business solution for transportation needs," explains Michele Cavaioni, an engineer who works on flying cars explains. This, at least in modern flying cars, is the realm of software. Other systems are also needed to ensure all those different parts work seamlessly together to enable the vehicle to function on roads and in the air. The above is, essentially, a “mechanical” definition, and there is much more to the what a flying car actually is than just its physical mechanics.
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