What Next, Flying Cars? The Roadable Aircraft Story

J.M. Syken

Course Outline

In this course, we will examine the history of the “Flying Car” (a/k/a “Roadable Aircraft) (beginning with attempts in the first decade of the 20th Century to get the “Horseless Carriage” airborne) through to the first decade/s of the 21st Century. This will include the efforts of aviation pioneers such as Glenn Curtiss and Eddie Rickenbacker to develop/promote the concept of automobiles that could operate in the third dimension. The efforts between the World Wars and post-WWII will be of special interest as will be the next generation of land-air vehicles, including NASA and DARPA’s efforts.

In particular, we will focus on the two basic types of Roadable Aircraft design: Integrated and Modular, and their advantages/disadvantages. Also, the physics involved in both automobile and aircraft design/s and their inherent incompatibility will be of great importance. Means of propulsion as well as well as fixed-wing vs. rotary wing design/s will be highlighted and discussed in depth and detail. The development of ground effect “Air Cars” in the post-WWII era through to the present day development of “MAGLEV” vehicles will be especially interesting. The iconic status of the Flying Car

This course includes a multiple-choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of the course materials.

Learning Objective

At the conclusion of this course, the student will:

• Understand/appreciate the long-sought-after dream of a practical “Flying Car” which is yet to be fully realized;
• Understand/appreciate the role of the flying car in science fiction and popular culture;
• Understand/appreciate the development of “Roadable Aircraft” beginning in 1906 with Trajan Vuia’s “Vuia 1”;
• Understand/appreciate the work of aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss in developing the “Autoplane” (in 1917) as the first serious attempt at producing a roadable aircraft;
• Understand/appreciate how the laws of physics and aerodynamics work against the fusion of car and airplane;
• Understand/appreciate the need for automation, flight controls, collision avoidance etc. to create a practical roadable aircraft;
• Understand/appreciate the development of the Autogyro as the first true predecessor of the roadable aircraft;
• Understand/appreciate the many challenges facing the designers of roadable aircraft including weight distribution, center-of-gravity location, dimensions, propulsion, range, take-off/landing mode/s, payload, passenger accommodations, wing/rotor design, control system, cost, marketability, dual-purpose etc.;
• Understand/appreciate the similarities and difference between land an air travel;
• Understand/appreciate the two types of roadable aircraft designs: modular and integrated, and the pros and cons of each;
• Understand/appreciate modular roadable aircraft designs such as the Airphibian, Aerocar and ConVairCar – their successes and failures;
• Understand/appreciate integrated roadable aircraft designs such as the AviAuto and the Autovolantor – their successes and failures;
• Understand/appreciate how the term “Flying Car” has become synonymous with failure and un-kept promises;
• Understand/appreciate how the decade of the 1950s was most influential regarding the promise of the future development of a practical flying vehicle;
• Understand/appreciate the designs of GEMs (Ground Effect Machines) and Hovercraft by industry for commercial and/or military purposes – their successes and failures;
• Understand/appreciate the development by Volkswagen of an experimental Hovercar using Magnetic Levitation (MagLev) technology;
•  Understand/appreciate Henry Ford’s involvement in promoting the development of an affordable flying car and, in general, making aviation accessible to the common man;
• Understand/appreciate the development by the Ford Motor Company of “Air Car” technologies in the late 1950s and early-mid 1960s – their successes and failures;
• Understand/appreciate proposals in the 1930s to use an aerodynamic design and aircraft technologies to develop a “Flying Railroad” (forerunner of MagLev train technology);
• Understand/appreciate the influence of WWI ace Eddie Rickenbacker on promoting the development of roadable aircraft to the general public in the 1920s;
• Understand/appreciate the many hybrid designs for flying cars proposed between the World Wars;
• Understand/appreciate how R. Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion Car was, in reality, the “ground taxing mode” of what he termed an “Omni-Medium Transport” (or flying car);
• Understand/appreciate the attempts in the 1930s to deliver military vehicles (i.e. tanks) via collapsible glider designs;
• Understand/appreciate the many attempts, starting in WWII, to create a practical “Flying Jeep”;
• Understand/appreciate the pioneering work of Waldo Waterman and his “Flying Wing” designs (Whatsit, Arrowplane, Arrowbile and Aerobile) for roadable aircraft, from the 1920s through the 1950s;
• Understand/appreciate the work of inventor Bill Stout for a roadable aircraft based on his “Scarab” automobile design of the mid-1930s;
• Understand/appreciate the work of Dr. George A. Spratt and his son George G. Spratt in developing the “Controlwing” and its application to their design for a roadable aircraft in the immediate post-WWII years;
• Understand/appreciate the post-WWII enthusiasm for the development of a flying car design using VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing);
• Understand/appreciate the work of Leland Dewey Bryan, starting in the 1950s through to his death in 1974, of a practical flying car design;
• Understand/appreciate the work of Stanley Hiller, Jr. in developing successful helicopter designs (i.e. co-axial rotors) and his attempts to apply this technology to personal aircraft designs;
• Understand/appreciate the work of Rafi Yoeli in developing practical “Fancraft” vehicles for commercial and/or military use (i.e. flying ambulances to access areas where helicopters are prohibited);
• Understand/appreciate the development of rotary wing designs for roadable aircraft and/or Personal Aerial Vehicles (PAVs);
• Understand/appreciate the development of “Jetpack” designs as a means of personal aerial travel – from science-fiction serials of the 1920s and ‘30s to the Wehrmacht’s “Himmelsturmer” of WWII to the working prototypes of the U.S. Army in the 1950s/60s and culminating with NASA’s MMU (Manned Manuevering Unit);
• Understand/appreciate the development of “Flying Saucer” designs as roadable aircraft;
• Understand/appreciate the different requirements of cars and small plane engines;
• Understand/appreciate early visions of future means of propulsion such as wireless electricity and radio frequency power;
• Understand/appreciate the development of amphibious roadable aircraft designs such as the Aeromarine of the mid-1950s;
• Understand/appreciate the work of NASA’s Langley Research Center in developing the technology that will allow for the safe flight of future roadable aircraft (i.e. SATS, EQuipT, HITS, EFIS etc.);
• Understand/appreciate the DOD’s DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) research of VTOL designs for military vehicles;
• Understand/appreciate the “Next Generation” of roadable aircraft including: I-TEC’s “Maverick” pusher-prop, dune-buggy parachute design; Terrafugia’s “Transition” and TF-X (VTOL) flying car/s; Stefan Klein’s “Aeromobil”; Krossblade’s “Skycruiser”; Germany’s “Carplane”, Scaled Composite’s “BiPod” and Toyota’s recent patent applications and announcements concerning developing flying car/hovercar technologies;  and
• Understand/appreciate the important societal contributions of the individual inventor and the flying car’s role in the advancement of both automobile and aviation technologies, even to the present day.

Intended Audience

This course is intended for architects, engineers and other design/construction professionals.

Benefit to Attendees

The attendee/s will gain an intimate knowledge and insight into the serious attempts, since the invention of the “Horseless Carriage,” to create a practical “Flying Car”

Course Introduction

The course includes an in-depth PowerPoint presentation and the viewing of several documentary films.

Course Content

In this course, you are required to view/study the following slideshow and the materials contained in the web pages:

What Next, Flying Cars? The Roadable Aircraft Story (printable handout in PDF, 13 MB, see Note A below for downloading instruction)

What Next, Flying Cars? The Roadable Aircraft Story (non-printable slideshow for screen-viewing only, 56 MB, see Note A below for downloading instruction)

Note A: Please click on the above underlined hypertext to view, download or print the document for your study. Because of the large file size, we recommend that you first save the file to your computer by right-clicking the mouse and choosing "Save Target As ...", and then open the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader from your computer.

Archival/Documentary Film:

TITLE: BMW Documentary Film: Why Don’t We Have Flying Cars?
LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syRy9dSb1rA
DURATION: 05:48
TITLE: AC-35 Autogiro
LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=3&v=nW9tBgmIFEU
DURATION: 00:35
TITLE: The World’s First Flying Car
LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=S5TGoJ9nWTc
DURATION: 02:08
TITLE: Airphibian Story
LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK5HK-7hPTE
DURATION: 04:50
TITLE: Leyland Bryan’s Flying Car (1955)
LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3KmAkUNQpQ
DURATION: 00:51
TITLE: Curtiss-Wright Air Car
LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajvqBbEz0x4
DURATION: 01:24
TITLE: The Flying Car
LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNp_iO-2Jfg
DURATION: 01:03
TITLE: Wagner Aerocar Helicopter 1965
LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHWGPpfxFCQ
DURATION: 00:50
TITLE: AVE Mizar - The Flying Pinto
LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5moG_bYPQk
DURATION: 09:48
TITLE: Flying Cars and the Future of Travel with Dr. Paul Moller
LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3xHLOAUe-0
DURATION: 07:06

Course Summary

It’s the Holy Grail of invention: mate a car to a plane and “Escape the Earth,” literally. Problem is it’s like trying to mate an elephant and a pig; in the end, you don’t get a very good elephant or a very good pig. It appears the laws of physics did not intend cars to fly and vice-versa, but that hasn’t stop man from trying, real hard. Most of the early designs for “Roadable Aircraft” (a/k/a “Flying Cars”) were of the modular type (a separate air frame and automobile). They weren’t very aerodynamic, fast, cheap, easily assembled and, in the end, desirable. Then came the modular designs; more efficient assembly-wise but many of the same problems persisted. Either way, they both required the driver/pilot to get to an airport for take-off and/or landing. By the 1950s, it looked like “Air Cars” and/or “Hover Cars” would be the way forward, but alas it was not to be. Ironically, VW has taken the air car idea to a new level by substituting air with magnetic levitation and the Hovercar is making a return with designs for aerial ambulances, both manned and unmanned. Perhaps most telling is the investments being made in research by government agencies such as NASA and the Department of Defense’s DARPA. Major automobile manufacturers such as Toyota are also getting in on the act, recognizing that flying cars may be more opportunity than running joke.

Related Links

For additional technical information related to this subject, please visit the following websites:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_car_(aircraft)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadable_aircraft

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWh2qT9yiTo
(VW People’s Car Project – 03:38)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBGfFuYk4GQ
(Paul Moller and his Skycar – 11:36)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7INsC6Ts3qc
(Missionary Builds Flying Car – 02:46)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W2ZOM5SWdU
(Terrafugia Transition Roadable Aircraft – 09:59)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHJTZ7k0BXU
(The Terrafugia TF-X – 03:08)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTNvQbhAF3w
(Krossblade SkyCruiser and SkyProwler – 03:49)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yn2uyQJ1jc
(Aeromobil 3.0 Demonstration – 03:58)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpko3CPHonQ
(Hoverbike 2014 – 03:07)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qXdWPZNPac
(No Flying Cars in 2015 – Back to the Future – 06:35)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bP2MH3LqvI
(Film: The Propeller Explained - 24:05)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r3kpl5Ao5s&feature=youtu.be
(Film: World's First All-Electric VTOL Jet Tested - Are Flying Cars Here? - 05:27)

Quiz

Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.

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DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDH Center or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered architect and/or professional engineer/surveyor. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.

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