Whereas small planes use more fuel per hour of operation, they also tend to arrive sooner at their destinations than cars do because they travel more or less in straight lines and, at least so far, traffic is lighter.
The flying motorcycle's body is also designed to be more environmentally friendly than a car's, given that the Switchblade exterior will be made of self-reinforced (and technically, recyclable) polypropylene—aka "number 5" plastic on food containers—whereas the frame will be steel tubing.
"From a scientific point of view, it is definitely possible to build an aircraft that can also negotiate a highway," says C. Nataraj, chair of Villanova University's mechanical engineering department.
Still, any reasonably complex system is optimized to do one thing, Nataraj says. Samson is trying to build one vehicle that does two complex tasks: safely transport people on crowded streets as well as in the air. Design and functional compromises would almost certainly have to be made to accommodate those twin missions, he adds.
There is a robustness to even civilian aircraft that is absent from cars, because, for the most part, a car breakdown entails pulling over. "If you get a ding in your door, no problem," Nataraj says. "Get a ding in your wing, and you will not be flying."
General aviation pilot and flight instructor Jeffrey Geibel of Belmont, Mass., says a craft like the Switchblade would have to be maintained per stringent FAA standards.
None of this is lost on Bousfield, and, like many a pioneer before him, he is pushing onward and upward. His next step will be wind-tunnel testing. An FAA-approved prototype is expected by year-end. And after that, the rest could possibly be personal transportation history.
A LEGACY OF AERO-BIKING
It's nearly impossible to definitively ascertain a "first" when it comes to small flying machines, especially flying motorcycles.
- There's a vintage silent film, apparently lost to the ages, of someone putting rockets and stubby wings on a bike. It didn't work.
- Evel Knievel put two wheels on a rocket and tried to jump his X-1 Skycycle across Idaho's Snake River Canyon in 1974. It didn't work—spectacularly.
- The Butterfly, LLC, has been producing flying three-wheel motorcycle kits since 2007. Its Butterfly Super Sky Cycle looks like the unlikely offspring of an old traffic helicopter, a go-kart and an Everglades airboat.
- Moller International debuted its prototype M400 Skycar, another trike, three years ago. The Skycar has promised innovations not least of which is vertical takeoff and landing. A peek at the Skycar's sleek body confirms that someone at Moller has watched a lot of Star Wars movies.
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25 Comments
Add CommentYou seem to have forgotten Urban Aero VTOL projects and products. see: www.urbanaero.com
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHere's another one: http://terrafugia.com/ .
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLot's of flying car companies. No flying cars.
Humm, is it time for me to trade in my VTX?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHeh and there will not be any flying cars any time soon . . with a still over stressed air control and the "threat" of flying bombs and accident dropping them on people. I can't see these ever becoming common till they are totally computer controlled and navigated. . and even then . .
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHeh and there will not be any flying cars any time soon . . with a still over stressed air control and the "threat" of flying bombs and accident dropping them on people. I can't see these ever becoming common till they are totally computer controlled and navigated. . and even then . .
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlright Sam, I hope the best of Luck to your project
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlright Sam, I hope the best of Luck to your project
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswith such tiny wings, if it lost power it would fall like a rock...you'd need some glide capability built in, no?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAt $65,000.00 for just the hull and you have to put it together yourself, I don't think he will sell too many - if any. He should've made it to look like the one on Star Wars.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNope, I saw terrafugia and urbanaero. They're supposed to be flying cars. This is supposed to be a flying motorcycle.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNope. I saw terrafugia and urbanaero. They're cars, though. I was writing about flying motorcycles. Scientifically speaking, flying motorcycles are confirmed signs that the Mayan calendar is write and we're doomed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGreat steps forward in aviation. We need Next Gen Air Traffic control systems ASAP if these vehicles will have any chance of taking to the airways in 2012. At $65K to avoid traffic jams! If this works then this is a winner.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisVery interesting concept. This kind of vehicle is perfectly suited for a Wankel rotary engine, that has less weight, smaller size, reduced vibrations and tend to have less breakdowns, and these almost never catastrophic,there are several in the market with the power needed for this byke-plane. The issue in the concept is the airfield and airways saturation, you may find these personal aircrafts disturbing airports the way gooses do, and having trouble when entering, for example, the swirl induced by a big airplane. I would really like flying one, if I knew how to fly anything
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf this makes it beyond the drawing board into full-scale production, the manufacturer will clean up!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGiven that the product is not just 'hot air' it is more likely that they will be 'absorbed' by a larger outfit who will have the capital to produce and market the machine globally.
But don't you just love these guys doing what others just dream about. It's what made the US the last bastion of capitalism.
Orville and Wilbur live on!
If this makes it beyond the drawing board into full-scale production, the manufacturer will clean up!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGiven that the product is not just 'hot air' it is more likely that they will be 'absorbed' by a larger outfit who will have the capital to produce and market the machine globally.
But don't you just love these guys doing what others just dream about. It's what made the US the last bastion of capitalism.
Orville and Wilbur live on!
Yup! Any day now.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this--charles kuralt 1964
In vintage scifi, 2010 was often featured, and one of the most common features was flying cars of some sort. It was the future, and now we say "happy 2010" and I have to ask "dude, where's my jetpack?"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs this Popular Science or Sci Am?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHells Angels with wings? Gimme shelter!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs a pilot, aircraft mechanic, and Experimental Aircraft Assoc. member, I sincerely hope the flying ground vehicle never comes to pass and I have no reason to believe it will. First, how many of you drivers are willing to take six hours of testing to get a license, not to mention several hundred hours of study and practice?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSecond, how many of you have the good sense to know when NOT to fly? As the article states, if you have a problem you don't just get to pull off the road. We're over 100 years into the air age and the three biggest killers of pilots are still, continued flight into deteriorating weather, failure to manage the fuel supply, and failure to fly the aircraft in an emergency. If pilots, who do take all the testing, instruction, and practice still have trouble with these three basic things, how do you think the average driver is going to do?
Third, how many Lexus owners would be willing to shell out $65K plus another $25K for engine and avionics if what they got to take home from the dealership was a moving van full of boxes of parts, a binder full of drawings and instructions, and the hope that in several hundred to several thousand hours of building they'd be able to drive to the coffee stand for a latte?
I think with one of these things, assuming it CAN fly, a parachute capable of deploying in less than five seconds will be a must-have.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI saw a science news items some years ago showing just such a parachute deploying from the top of a Cessna in flight. It worked but you would really want your seatbelt fastened!
rickofudall, you are right of course - for the moment. Considering that most human individual transportation can be safely and effectively accomplished with buses and bicycles [I have commuted by bike for three decades now] it begs the question: " Who needs to travel that fast anyway?"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBut that said, I think it is only a matter of time before improvements in material strength per unit mass, and in computerisation of flight controls, will enable this all to happen. The trick will be to forget about "cars that can fly" because cars are stupid anyway. Making small flying machines more bird-like and bat-like [not to mention pterodactyl-like] and giving them a capability of folding down into an enclosed motor bike format will do the trick. They will of course need "trainer wheels" for going slowly but control of those, and control of just about everything else except choice of destination, way points, and start time, will need to be performed by the intelligent systems of the "bird brain".
It's gonna happen!
The perfect power supply for a vehicle like this would be a small fusion reactor as both technologies have been just a decade or two away for over 50 years now.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://wolffaerocycle.com/
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisadam@wolffaerocycle.com
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://wolffaerocycle.com/