The toy of the rich is the flying car

Those who have designed a car rapper so far have either tried to turn an airplane into a car or a car into an airplane, no wonder they have failed – says John Brown, 48, who claims he has found a solution !

I still keep the napkin I drew on it, ”the Australian pilot recalled. “I had a vision of a flying catamaran four years ago, and I knew right away that double-hull technology could be a breakthrough. I faced countless problems but didn’t give up.

It took years for Brown to find all the professionals to coordinate air resistance and lightweight design, not to mention licensing. Eventually, he founded a business called Carplane in Germany. According to a provision therein, two-person aircraft with an unladen weight of less than 450 kilograms are considered to be ultralight and are exempt from the cumbersome authorization. The consent of the flying club is sufficient for their take-off.

$ 100,000 Brown says the Carplane wouldn’t be more expensive than that, which will need an 85-meter straight stretch of road to ascend. With an electric motor, the top speed would be 175 kilometers per hour on the ground and 220 kilometers per hour in the air with a petrol motor, and 835 kilometers could be covered with it.

Its big advantage is that its wings bend to the edge at the touch of a button. The American 367 BiPod lags behind here, though designer Burt Rutan thought similarly to Brown. Catamaran-type body, hybrid engine, but the wings lie between the two cabins, they have to be mounted by hand before takeoff, which is quite cumbersome.

You have to wait another 3-4 years for these, but the American Transition is already available and can be pre-ordered for $ 190,000. Its wings bend down at the touch of a button, but it’s not a carriage rap, but a small airplane that can be turned into a car. Of course, road helicopters will also get into the competition. The Dutch PAL-V promises to be agile both on the ground and in the air. With its three-wheeled cab, it can be broken on asphalt and in the clouds at a speed of 185 kilometers per hour. The price is still a secret, but it will definitely be cheaper than myCopter, which the engineers of the German Max-Planck Institute work on, and from which it will be able to rise.

The money spent on flying cars could buy airline tickets for everyone, critics say, and the fact that only 300 of the nearly two thousand attempts so far have risen to the air.