IEEE Electrification Magazine - March 2016 - 49

The recently demonstrated AeroMobil 3.0 (Figure 7),
which has been testing since October 2014, is a flying car
without VTOL capability; it makes use of the existing
infrastructure created for automobiles and planes, leading to possibility of door-to-door travel. As a car, it fits
into any standard parking space, uses regular gasoline,
and can be used in road traffic just like any other car. As
a plane, it can use any airport in the world but can also
take off and land using any grass strip or paved surface
just a few hundred meters long. The AeroMobil 3.0 is predominantly built from advanced composite material,
which includes its body shell, wings, and wheels. It also
contains all the main features that are likely to be incorporated into the final product, such as avionics equipment, autopilot, and an advanced parachute-deployment
system. It has a top flight speed of 124 mi/h and a 435-mi
range. The maximum ground speed is 95 mi/h.
Personal Air and Land Vehicle (PAL-V), a Dutch company
started in 2001, is developing a flying vehicle with a twobladed propeller called the PAL-V ONE (Figure 8). It has two
seats and a 160-kW flight-certified gasoline engine with a
top speed of 112 mi/h on land and in air, and a maximum
takeoff weight of 910 kg. The three-wheeled vehicle can be
driven to the nearest airfield and take off just like any other
airplane. The PAL-V ONE has a very short takeoff and landing capability and usually flies below 4,000 ft. A prototype
unit was test flown in 2012, and the company is planning to
deliver the commercial version by 2016.
Terrafugia is developing the TF-X flying car (Figure 9)
and has plans for VTOL capability with a 500-mi range.
TF-X is planned to be a fixed-wing, street-legal aircraft
with electric ground drive and electric power assist on
takeoff and landing. It would be a tilt-rotor flying
machine that would take off and land like a helicopter.
Twin 600-hp electric propeller pods and a 300-hp engine
handle the transition from vertical takeoff to a maximum cruising speed of 200 mi/h. It will be able to
recharge its batteries either from its engine or by plugging into electric car charging stations. It will be able to
drive on roads and highways-providing true door-todoor convenience and an automotive level of weather
insensitivity. It will have four road wheels on the bottom with electrically driven rotors that point vertically
for liftoff, then rotate horizontally for level flight. Propulsion is based on a gas turbine for horizontal flight
and hybrid electric for ground travel. For liftoff and
landing, the rotors would be turned electrically via a
motor, inverter, and a battery storage, as would the road
wheels. The transition from vertical to horizontal flight
is managed electronically. The pilot decides when to lift
off and how high to fly before starting to fly horizontally, and the vehicle manages those operations.
There were several other programs for the design and
deployment of flying cars for commercial purpose that are
not reported in this article. The technology used in many
early flying cars was a combination of the concepts of the

Figure 5. The Skyrider. (Photo courtesy of Macro Industries.)

(a)

(b)
Figure 6. The Terrafugia Transition (a) on the ground and (b) in the air.
(Photos courtesy of Terrafugia.)

car and the helicopter. In fact, most early prototypes were
only a car with two wings and a fan driven by an engine.

challenges of Developing Flying cars
The difficulties of designing a flying car are more challenging than a regular car or a small airplane. The
design requirements of a ground vehicle are so different
from those of an airplane that the task of trying to combine the two sets of requirements together into one system presents many challenges. In addition, there has to
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Electrification Magazine - March 2016