Aircraft flying cars are one of those ideas whose time has not come yet. However, it is approaching fast. A pioneering company in this regard is Pivotal, an American start up. It has started the pre-sales of Helix. Helix is a single seat “flying-motorbike”. According to US rules, it is considered a microlight aircraft. Therefore , everyone with, without pilot license, is allowed to fly with it in unbuilt areas. The price is set around $ 190,000 and the delivery begins in June.
Flying cars would change the dynamics of transportation,of course, if they became well developed.
The idea of flying cars came to Marcus Leng’s mind, the founder of Pivotal, many years ago. He is a Canadian mechanical engineer, around 2011, his back of envelope calculations showed that, with the new advancements in Lithium-ion batteries, the idea of electric flying vehicles are becoming feasible. So he started to build a prototype. It was a home-made machine but it just worked. After 13 years, Helix is using the same principles for flight. Helix is now entering the market, its software is designed in a way that would not allow the pilot to perform maneuvers that do not fit inside its aerodynamic-safety envelope. And if anything happens it still has a parachute inside it.
However, this flying car is still far away from a commercial, reliable vehicle. It is more like a luxury hobby for the rich. Helix range is around 30 Km, and after this mileage it needs around 4.5 hours of recharging. However with the new technologies in batteries, the recharge duration would be shortened to 75 minutes. And as the energy capacity of batteries increases, the flying range of flying cars increases as well.
Source: Economist
