How to Build a Flying Car

 How to Build a Flying Car: an occasional series of posts that examine various points of interest.

So we wish to design a flying car. There are a lot of people attempting to do so now, perhaps twice as many groups as were 2 years ago when the book came out, and even then there were quite a few. And there are a remarkable number of designs, so many that you might even call this a "Cambrian Explosion" of flying car types.

The key to understanding which ones will catch on is of course, understanding which ones will present the most value to whomever buys one. You may remember that in the book I had a chapter on travel theory, which I summarized in this post. The essence of it is that the flying car is most valuable when it has the least latency, i.e. lands in your own driveway (or rooftop helipad), but at the same time is as fast as possible in flight. 

This is a tough assignment technologically, but by no means impossible with current technology. On the other hand it means that autogyros, which would have been the perfect flying car for the 1930s, probably won't make it in the 2030s. (As much as I would have liked them!)

What are we left with? A compact shape, basically a lifting body, with separate lift and thrust fans. Something like the Ryan XV5 VertiJet.

The main trouble with the VertiJet was simple: both of them crashed, killing experienced test pilots. Sheesh.

The bottom line is that it is quite difficult to fly a thrust-supported aircraft. The difference between 1961 and today is twofold: we have electric motors for thruster fans with much faster response time to control; and we have computers and electronics that make the best they had then look like stone knives and bearskins.

So technologically, the way to optimal flying cars today lies through control theory. 

Excitement lies ahead in our next episode!