09 10 2015 47 IT S MAGIC Things always begin with a grand vision and great enthu siasm In 1945 Ted Hall swore his prototype had already proven itself superbly in testing The streamlined vehicle with three wheels drove on the interstates of his home state of Texas at a legal speed of 90 km h but it did 180 km h in the air It was practical and easy to operate Hall was sure that that every major farmer in the United States would snap up the merely 750 kilogram vehicle all the more because it would only cost 2 500 dollars at the appropriate production volume Instead Hall s invention failed to find any buyer interest The produc tion volume of two units has been mothballed in a warehouse in California ever since Thirty years later in the 1970 s Paul Moller invested a great deal of time and money Over four de cades and three marriages the former professor of engineering from Canada purportedly poured 200 million dollars into his Skycar which was supposed to be as easy to fly as a car is to drive Eight Wankel engines drove four propellers No vibra tions no instability Only powerful thrust Moller promised plus a 600 km h top air speed with a fuel consumption of just 15 liters Commuters would reach their destination in no time at all and freeway traffic jams would be a thing of the past But the Skycar was the only thing that time passed by John Brown is a corporate consultant was an airline pilot him self and has collected more than 2 000 more or less comical sketches of vehicles that could be flown and driven Not even 1 000 were built and in any case 300 made it into the air None went into regular production So far the products have either been bad automobiles or bad airplanes sometimes even both Brown said in an interview with Bild der Wissenschaft Brown himself is a tinkerer His flying car flies with swing wings which can be stowed more easily than other configurations can Major sticking points stand in the way of a vehicle that you can fly and drive In Germany the Federal Office of Civil Aeronau tics is responsible for the licensing of airplanes and the agen cy is not exactly known for its penchant for experimentation The major advantage of a car that flies or an airplane that can be driven is simultaneously its greatest disadvantage To over come gravity a plane must be as light as possible Every extra kilogram demands more power and thus a larger engine and greater fuel consumption In turn both increase weight and the vicious circle spins faster than a propeller By contrast a road vehicle requires components above and beyond lighting and adequate brakes to make it roadworthy including a chas sis that can handle curves and steering that functions precisely even at high speeds plus impact protection for the occupants all factors that increase weight Terrafugia In general aircraft have a higher center of gravity than an auto designer would prefer The hybrid also needs airfoils to produce lift Terrafugia an American design has a span of 8 meters To be sure a folding mechanism allows the wings to be tucked in but even at 2 3 meters the vehicle has the width of a large recreational vehicle or a truck Aside from spacious garages that the owners need an infrastructure would have to be created before they could soar skyward The Dutch company PAL V Personal Air and Land Vehicle has already submitted an application to the country s transport ministry to construct so called airstrips These mini take off and landing strips the size of a parking lot would be connected to the regular road network In the United Kingdom 5 000 of these airstrips are reportedly already in place Many aviation pioneers had doubted that a highly developed industrial country would incur this substantial cost for a small limited number of users at taxpayers expense So Terrafugia is promoting a modified version of the Transition The newly presented TF X model is designed to propel itself up ward and forward with rotors that swivel It also requires much less space than the airfoil variation but there s a catch it is still a long way off In fully developed form it can at best be found in a CAD compute The cost of the aircraft technology is substan tial which catapults the price of these rolling flying machines into the same league as luxury sedans and super sports cars Brown s car plane is expected to cost 200 000 euros and the Terrafugia 240 000 euros The Terrafugia Transition needs 518 meters of runway for takeoff The craft has a top speed of 160 km h and a range of 660 kilometers In flight the Transition has a wingspan of 8 meters With wings folded its width on the highway is only 2 3 meters Fliegende Autos Essay 63 02 2015 2 4 5 3 1 Das amerikanische Projekt Terrafugia TF X ist ein Senkrechtstarter mit schwenkbaren Propellern aber bisher reine Zukunftsmusik Geschätzte Entwicklungszeit acht bis zwölf Jahre 2 Der Terrafugia Transition braucht eine Startbahn von 518 Metern schafft laut Hersteller 160 km h und hat eine Reichweite von 660 Kilometern 3 Als Flugzeug hat der Transition eine Spannweite von acht Metern Im Fahrbetrieb werden die Flügel eingeklappt Das Gefährt ist dann noch 2 3 Meter breit 4 Das europäische Projekt MyCopter ist ein Gyrocopter mit mehreren Rotoren Er ist als reines Fluggerät konzipiert das keine Start und Landebahn benötigt 5 Das Cockpit des MyCopter sieht nicht viel anders aus als das eines Autos Er soll auch von Fluglaien möglichst einfach zu bedienen sein Ph ot o T er ra fu gi a

Hinweis: Dies ist eine maschinenlesbare No-Flash Ansicht.
Klicken Sie hier um zur Online-Version zu gelangen.