Flying Car Takes Off

British inventor to journey from London to Timbuktu in flying car

By Holly Otterbein Posted 01.15.2009 at 4:59 pm 4 Comments

Aerial View iStockPhoto

Popular Science has been daydreaming about the flying car for decades. (Seriously, I’ve been to the office. You think an editor is working diligently, and then you glance over his shoulder – and there’s the proof. Dozens of doodles of flying cars.)

But as much as we’ve doodled, the technology needed to devise a flying car always seemed a hundred years away. Until now, that is. British inventor Giles Cardozo and a team of engineers have successfully crafted the first legal, bio-fueled flying car. In three minutes, the vehicle can convert from an all-terrain automobile to an aircraft that travels up to 70 miles per hour and reaches a maximum altitude of 15,000 feet. To do so, the driver first deploys the nylon wing and parachute. The fan’s propeller then pushes the vehicle forward, creating enough wing lift to get it off the ground at only 45 miles per hour, so long as the airstrip is longer than 650 feet.

Cardozo and his team credit today’s flexible wing technology for helping them realize their boyhood dreams. The car’s “ParaWing” utilizes a parafoil design, which is safer than the traditional, rigid wing design. It also handles extremely well and is compact enough to fit into the car’s boot.

The British inventor trusts the technology so much that he set off yesterday for a 3,720-mile trip in the flying car. Departing from London, Cardozo hopes to cruise over France, Spain, Morocco and the Western Sahara before landing in Timbuktu. If the journey goes well, he plans to sell the vehicle to the public for $76,000. That’s not bad, Cardozo, but can I recommend offering a discount to Popular Science readers and editors?

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4 Comments

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Oakspar77777

01/16/09 at 7:51 am

I dare say, like many, so what? We have all seen cars that can turn into airplanes in a few minutes for decades. Yes, his dune buggy/airboat with parawing is new, but it certainly isn't going to have us flying to work.

What humanity dreams for is simple, practicle, potentually ubiquitious, and, above all, sexy, flying cars.

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Mike Cook

from Kent, WA

01/16/09 at 9:25 am

The main requisite for a practical personal flying vehicle for ordinary commutes is that the person(s) being transported should have nothing whatsoever to do with piloting the thing. The main reason your pfv will need to fold up is so that it can be parked at work efficiently.

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akudara

01/18/09 at 5:44 pm

This is awesome. Think about it, you're own private jet/car for $76,000.

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ishanbansal

01/19/09 at 3:08 am

So many attempts have been made at creating flying cars, but none has reached a stage that these can be commercially viable. I hope our big car and aircraft manufacturers get together. They can share their technologies, and come up with a viable solution. And of course, both would still get to make money.
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