by Jon Ferguson

Created on: December 20, 2011   Last Updated: December 26, 2011

There is nothing new about flying cars.  Famed WWII Ace and race car driver Eddie Rickenbacker predicted "Flying Auto's in 20 years" in July 1924 popular science magazine.  Beloved architect Frank Lloyd Wright also thought the future of personal travel would be in the air.  Many of his renderings show helicopter type vehicles sitting in lofty driveways.

Arguably the first practical flying car was the Taylor Aerocar. The prototype was built and tested in 1949 and would see very limited production in 1951.  Aerocar designer Molt tried desperately his entire life to bring the vehicle to mass production.  He even showed it to the army but at that time the army favored the new helicopter designs.

Unfortunately for Molt and for the rest of humanity his Aerocar would never be a business success though it was quite a feat of engineering.  The basic plan of the Aerocar was to have a road able car that had folding wings that lay alongside the tail.  In the air thrust was provided by a pusher configuration propeller mounted in the tail.  On the ground engine power was routed to the wheels.

A number of modern designs have emulated Taylor’s original plan-form but as of this writing none of these designs are a commercial success.  Some iteration have the car leaving its wings and tail at the airport and then reconnecting when it's time to fly.  Modern cars feature lightweight powerful engines and there is no technological reason this can't work.  The difficulty lies with selling this to the non-flying public and investors.  It also creates a really complicated situation for law makers and the FAA.

The past fifteen years have seen resurgence in the idea of flying cars.  Two of the most promising modern flying cars are the Terrafugia and the Moller Skycar.  The Terrafugia seems a new twist on the original Taylor Skycar it is different though because it utilizes 'lifting body' design in aerodynamics.

The Moller Skycar is probably the most compelling of the modern skycars.  It is has four rotating nacelles with a total of eight engines.  The advent of ballistic recovery systems has made a hovering and flying vehicle like this safe.  The multiple engines and onboard stability computer are revolutionary and give the Moller great redundancy.  Unfortunately both the Terrafugia and the Moller Skycar are prohibitively expensive.  It's the same dilemma the poor Taylor skycar faced; cool flying car but who can afford it?

 The Moller SkyCar

One final entry seems a bit more practical.  The Maverick Para-Car is not a fixed wing aircraft but is in fact a powered parachute combined with a small sport utility vehicle.  Already available to the public this flying auto has already been on many adventures to prove its worth.  Its price low enough to be available to the general public.  This is the kind of out of the box thinking that might one day see us into the future age of the Jetsons.

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