As technology evolves, flying cars finally get ready to take off

The motto of the US state of New Hampshire is “Live Free or Die”. Appropriately enough, NH is currently the only US state offering legal certification for flying cars. But while such a vehicle sounds like a figment of science fiction, it could soon become perfectly normal technology.
 
A month ago, the Slovak company Klein Vision tested its AirCar prototype 1 with a 35-minute flight between Nitra and Bratislava airports. The AirCar’s 160 bhp BMW engine can take it up to 2,500 metres, propelling it through the air at 190 kmph for round trips of 1,000 km. Once it lands, it takes under 3 minutes to fold up the wings and become a high-performance car. The production version will have an even more powerful engine.

 
AirCar is one of dozens of flying cars, or drivable aircraft, if you prefer, under develop­ment. Wikipedia lists over 30 such designs in development, or, in a few instances, already legally cleared for public use.
 

Apart from AirCar, there’s Terrafugia Transition, which is described as a “drivable light sports aircraft”. The Transition has been cleared by America’s Federal Aviation Admin­istration and it can be used by someone with a pilot’s licence. This two-seater aims to meet the US National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration driving safety standards by 2022. Meanwhile, Germany’s Volocopter, is trying to license its VoloCity as an autonomous air taxi.

 
The Dutch company PAL-V’s Liberty has been approved for road usage in Holland. It’s passed the road vehicle tests and is seeking air certification. Drivers will have to undergo flight training to use it, if they don’t already have pilot licences.
 
Alongside boutique engi­neering outfits, tran­sportation majors are also interested in air-car development. A joint team from BMW, Aston Martin, Lockheed Martin and Airbus is working on the AeroMobil. This vehicle, which can also transform from car to aircraft quickly, has a top speed of about 160 kmph on the ground and 250 kmph in the air. It’s already undergone thousands of hours of testing and the first commercial versions are to launch in 2023.

 
Japanese startup SkyDrive, which is backed by Toyota, is testing its SD-03, an all-electric vehicle capable of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL). Hyundai is looking at an electric VTOL air-car. General Motors’ Cadillac Vertile, which was on display at CES 2021, is targeting a utilitarian market, like the Volocopter. The single passenger, all-electric Vertile is an autonomous quad-copter with wheels. It’s designed for urban commutes — VTOL capability lets it land on roofs, or in parking lots.
 
Audi-Airbus displayed their collaborative Pop.Up Next concept at the Geneva Motor Show in 2017. This is to be a self-driving, self-flying, fully autonomous electric taxi. It uses four wheels to drive on the streets, and an eight-rotor unit for VTOL.

 
The interest in such vehi­cles is driven by e-commerce pene­tration and the popu­lar­ity of ride-hailing. The pandemic has also led to a new focus on personal tran­sport. Com­mu­ters would like to avoid traffic jams and they’re relu­c­tant to use public transport for fear of in­fection. Evolving drone tech­nologies and AI developments have made it easier to dream up ambitious designs.
 
Clean, electric autono­m­ous air-cars with VTOL capa­bility could alter how we live, work and travel as well as con­s­umption patterns. Urban plan­ning would change radic­a­lly if these catch on. And of course, safety norms must evolve.
 
The “first editions” of such vehicles will be very expensive (Liberty will cost over $559,000) but that’s true for most technologies. The engineering challenges are interesting. Cars and planes don’t have much in common.

 
Planes are light-weight and streamlined for aero­dyna­mics. They can have fixed wings (these need to be folded if the vehicle is driven); they can have rotors (ala helicopters but again these need to be folded) or they can use jets. The directional controls are very different in 3-D airspace and on the ground.
 
Weight is less of a consi­de­ration with cars. But cars must be designed not to turn turtle cornering at speeds, and they’re built to protect passengers in accidents.
 
Many cars have “anti-lift” designs, like spoilers to improve road-holding.
 
The skies are less crowded than urban roads but aerial collisions, as and when they occur, have a very high fatality rate. A flying car must be designed to operate safely in both modes and it must receive certification for both road safety and air-safety. Moreover, regulators must demarcate urban air-corridors to operate such vehicles. They will need to develop high-tech, machine-readable real-time maps of such corridors to reduce collision risks.

 
If it’s autonomous, the programming must handle both modes. If it’s driven­/piloted, the person in charge must have both licences. Autonomy is the likely way forward. Even highly trained pilots find it hard to control multi-rotor VTOL aircraft.
 
Morgan Stanley reckons the air-car market will mature into a $1-trillion global industry by 2040. For comparison, the global automobile industry is worth around $2 trillion now. The investments pouring in and the frenzied activity could mean faster development of the sector.