Why we don't have flying cars yet?

How cool it would be to own such a car where we can get behind the wheel and fly like a plane? no tickets, no boarding pass and all those hustles of going to the airport security check. This was the thing that was going through my mind while I was watching an old clip of Neil deGrasse Tyson in Joe Rogan's show a few days back where he talked about why we don't have flying cars. At that very moment, I found this topic really interesting and realized I needed to write something about it and here I am with an article to explain the reality of flying cars and why flying cars aren't taking off as a convenient means of transportation.

We have seen and heard about flying cars in magazines and sci-fi movies. Especially movies like 'Back to The Future' and 'Blade Runner' have inspired more people to think and work on this technology. However, flying cars didn't actually come out of sci-fi stories and magazine covers. We have come so far in terms of other automobile technology, some of the fantasy of yesterday is becoming a reality these days. We have electric trucks, hydrogen cars, and even hydrogen-powered internal combustion engines that are about to hit the market soon. Looking at the development of all these other technologies in the last couple of decades makes us wonder why we still haven’t seen flying cars find their way into our everyday lives. Where we are in terms of its technological advancement? and what's taking so long?

Where we are?

Imagine you are on the highway and you are stuck in some traffic and you are going like two miles an hour and you desperately want to push that button to go vertical and take off over all those vehicles in front of you.

 Although, flying cars have the potential to fundamentally change the way we commute and making one that can operate on land, as well as air with the available technology, is not an easy task. The problem with designing a flying car is incorporating all the functionality of a car while being light, and aerodynamic enough to be safe in the air. 

There is a misconception associated with flying cars that they can only be powered by electric motors, much as some people might like to think otherwise, they can be powered by gasoline engines as well as electric motors. The reason that the electric motor seems superior to the gasoline engine for the future of flying cars is that the complexity of the gasoline engine development to makes it lighter, more powerful and silent enough to power flying cars. If not, we already have gasoline-powered vehicles that fly over cities which cut past traffic and save our journey time, they are called helicopters. The problem is that helicopters are loud and if we use them as daily means of transportation like taxis, then they will create lots of traffic and noise pollution. Therefore, the flying cars of the future should be quieter and flexible enough to fit in our garage like all other conventional cars. 

Although battery technology seems more promising for the advancement of flying car technology, we haven't reached that point where we can completely rely on this technology. The conventional Li-ion battery technology still has some drawbacks in terms of reliability and safety. So, many automotive giants like Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen, and General Motors are in search of better technology. The recent technological breakthrough in electric motors and battery technology like solid-state battery technology and sodium cell battery gives us hope that there is a future for flying cars powered by electric motors.

According to maneuverability, the flying vehicles can be designed with different types of takeoff and landing systems,

1. Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL)

A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) system in an aircraft is a take-off and landing system in which an aircraft can take off, hover, and land vertically without relying on the runway. The benefit of the VTOL system in aircraft is its flexibility, it allows aircraft to take off and land almost anywhere. Some examples of VTOL aircraft design are helicopters (rotary-powered aircraft), Boeing's V-22 Osprey, and F-35B Lightning II ( with thrust vectoring system).

2. Short Take-Off and Landing (STOL)

Unlike VTOL, a short take-off and landing system in aircraft offers take-off and landing using a small runway. Since the aircraft takeoffs by rolling from a runway it can carry a comparatively heavy load (increased payload capacity) as it requires less thrust compared to vertical takeoff. All small-size fixed-wing aircraft fall into this category.

As we are heading toward technological advancement there are some aircraft like the F35B Lightening II  Harrier and V-22 Osprey with combined take-off and landing systems of VTOL and STOL and it is called Vertical/ Short Take Off and Landing (V/STOL). 

Here are some of the recent development of prototype models of flying cars,

 

1. AeroMobil 4.0

In December 2020, the model AeroMobil 4.0 completed its first phase of test flight as per the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) CS23 test flight requirements. Manufactured by a Slovakian company AeroMobil s.r.o., the hybrid model AeroMobil 4.0 is powered by a 300 hp Subaru's 2.0l turbocharged four-cylinder boxer engine or 110 hp dual electric motor. The flying range of the Aeromobile 4.0 is 740km with a cruise speed of 360 kph (air) and 160 kph (road).

2. Klein Vision AirCar

Klein Vision, a company started by the same guy who designed Aeromobile flying cars, the Klein Vision AirCar is a combination of the convertible car with foldable wings and a propeller on the back. It is powered by a 140hp 1.6L BMW engine, with a top speed of 200kph (air) and a flight range of 1000kmph.

3. PAL-V Liberty

Developed by the Netherlands-based company PAL-V, The PAL-V Liberty is a combination of a three-wheeled car with an autogyro. It is powered by a 200hp Rotax engine with a maximum operating speed of 180 kph(flight), 160 kph(drive), and a maximum range of 400km (flight), 1315km (drive). As of 2022, PAL-V is in the final stage to get full certification from EASA. One of the important features of PAL-V Liberty is its autogyro.