Jalopnik: Flying Cars

Where are our flying cars?

Adrian Covert — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 20:00:00 EST

I think if futurists from the '50s saw the way things turned out in 2012—speaking purely in terms of innovation—they wouldn't be too mad. But there is one area where we truly failed them: flying cars. More »

Happy New Year from Jalopnik!

Tom Joslin — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:01:00 EST

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Best wishes from Jalopnik for a 2011 full of secret cars, concept cars, flying cars, vintage cars, tricked-out cars, red cars, black cars, blonde cars and sometimes, cars just because of the curve of a hood. (Photo Credits: hugo90, ddyates) More »

Subaru-Powered, Jesus-Supporting Flying Car Gets FAA Approval

Justin Hyde — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 15:30:00 EDT

The I-Tec Maverick, a roadworthy dune buggy powered by a Subaru engine, has won the first certification from the Federal Aviation Administration for a flying car. Its first mission: Saving the Third World. More »

These Are DARPA's "Flying Humvee" Transformer Concepts

Ray Wert — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 12:30:00 EDT

DARPA has now awarded the second of two Transformer "flying Humvee" study contracts to Lockheed Martin. We just want to know when we'll get to see both concepts fight in a desert death match. Let's get ready to rotor! More »

Terrafugia Flying Car To Begin Production Late 2011

Matt Hardigree — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 10:30:00 EDT

The Terrafugia Transition flying car's one step closer to your driveway. The FAA-approved "roadable aircraft" plans to begin limited production in Woburn, Massachusetts as soon as late 2011 while they continue their search for a long-term production facility. More »

These Flying Cars Don't Fly, They Whoosh!

Sam Smith — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:25:00 EDT

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With the recent reveal of the production-ready Terrafugia flying car, we thought it an appropriate time to take a quick look at propeller-driven automobiles. Not the kind that fly. The kind that drive. Hello, propcar! Run, pedestrians, run! More »

Terrafugia Flying Car: First Look at New, Less Dorky Design

Matt Hardigree — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:00:00 EDT

The dream-fulfilling-but-dorky Terrafugia Flying Car we've seen flying around was merely a "proof of concept." Today the company released the first renderings of the much cooler looking production version of the streetable aircraft. Here they are. More »

Flying Jeeps! What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Murilee Martin — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 15:00:00 EDT

While reading the story of the man responsible for the Blower Bentley, I stumbled across a passage recounting the use of one of the surviving cars for towing test-bed "flying Jeeps" aloft during World War II. Flying Jeeps? More »

The Military-Designed Flying Car For Dodging Roadside Bombs

Spencer Ackerman — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:00:00 EDT

America has long had an obsession with the flying automobile, but now the Pentagon may be getting involved. Wired.com's Spencer Ackerman took a look at one man's optimistic proposal to use flying cars to dodge roadside bombs. —Ed. More »

Student Builds DeLorean Hovercraft By Hand

Ben Wojdyla — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 10:30:00 EDT

Matthew Riese, a 26-year-old grad student, is hand-building what every kid in 1985 desperately wanted — a hovering DeLorean just like in the movie Back to the Future. Now he needs your help. More »

Terrafugia Flying Car Gets FAA Approval

Matt Hardigree — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:00:00 EDT

The FAA's granted the Terrafugia Transition roadable airplane the exemption it needs to bring us closer to our dream of flying cars. More »

This Is Not A Flying Car, But It's Awfully Close

Sam Smith — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:00:00 EST

This is a Vought VE-7 biplane being started by a modified Ford Model T in 1926. The mechanism is known as a Hucks Starter. Flying car, no; cool merging of cars and airplanes, yes. Until the chain snaps. [NASA] More »

Dude, Where's My Flying Car? The Popular Science Fantasy

Sam Smith — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:20:00 EST

Few machines represent The Future like the flying car, and no publication has championed the fantasy more zealously than Popular Science. Here's a look back at its feverish, 77-year-long vision. More »

Israeli Flying Car Nears First Test Flight

Ben Wojdyla — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:30:00 EDT

In early 2007, Urban Aeronautics announced it'd have an "air jeep" flying car dubbed the X-Hawk ready for flight by 2009. The future's now, and while the X-Hawk isn't quite ready, the test mule almost is, and this is it. More »

Ferrari X-Racer Concept: A Balls-Out, Flying Grand Prix Car

Peter Orosz — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:15:00 EDT

You saw the grim future of a budget-capped Formula One. Forget that. Let's dream big: all the way to Mach 2. Designer Vincent Montreuil’s flying Ferrari concept comes with twin turbos—turbostator engines, that is. More »

Driving On Cairo’s Congested Roads

Peter Orosz — Wed, 06 May 2009 07:30:00 EDT

The BBC’s Christian Fraser reports from the back seat of a dilapidated Fiat taxicab to describe a city of utter traffic mayhem. More »

Terrafugia "Flying Car" Makes First Flight

Ray Wert — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 09:00:00 EDT

This morning it's official — the future is now. The Terrafugia Transition, the first plausible "flying car" (or more precisely, a "roadable aircraft"), took its first official flight earlier this month. Full gallery and video below. More »

DARPA Looking For Someone To Build Flying Cars

Ben Wojdyla — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:30:00 EST

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is looking for a few inventive companies looking for cash to develop the holy grail of automotive awesomeness — flying cars. As part of a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) proposal, DARPA is looking for actionable plans for a military vehicle able to hold two or four people, drive up to sixty miles per hour, fit it inside an eight and a half by seven by twenty four foot box, then take of vertically and fly for two hours at 150 MPH. The obvious application is reconnaissance and evacuation with transportation in a large cargo plane, but fold these babies into the NASA SATS program and blamo — air cars for everyone! Complete proposal details and program specifics below. More »

Audi Calamaro Flying Concept Car Takes Future Design Competitions To Higher Level

Wes Siler — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:20:00 EDT

This futuristic take on a flying car was designed by Hungarian design student Tibor for a design contest run by his native Porsche distributor. Inspired by the “bone of a cuttlefish,” the Audi Calamaro does a good job of looking kind of like its name suggests while still adapting current Audi design themes — check out the ‘beard’ air intake — to a product clearly intended for the distant future. We can spot no obvious means of propulsion, so can only assume it uses a Mr. Fusion. More »

Reality-Defying Futurama Flying Car For Sale On Amazon For A Mere $50,000!

Ben Wojdyla — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:00:00 EDT

Good news everyone! A recently-launched merchant on Amazon — named Jetson — is offering the "Futurama Flying Car" for the bargain price of only $50,000. Although the seller makes no promises or claims, other than an artfully updated image of the Guigiaro B.A.T. 5, the reviews on this product offer stunning insight into the performance of this revolutionary, yet totally fictional, vehicle. More »

Moller Planning Flying Ferrari 599 GTB For Russian Businessman

Mark Arnold — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:20:00 EDT

We love flying cars, and apparently so does a Russian businessman who contracted Moller to design a flying car based on the Ferrari 599 GTB. Moller is the leading authority on flying "cars", but as far as we can tell this is the first time they're seriously designing a flying machine based on an existing automobile. They call it the Autovolanter — catchy eh? To catch you up on their previous creations, there's the Moller M200 flying saucer, and the M400 Sky Car which has graced the covers of many a buff book over the 200 years it's been in development. Despite being the best in the flying car business, Moller never really got either of those to work out. We hope things are different with this flying Ferrari, but it's not too promising thus far. More »

Aerocar To Be Displayed At 2008 Meadow Brook Concours, Land In Our Dreams

Matt Hardigree — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:40:00 EDT

What would a car show be without a flying car? Frankly, we don't want to know, which is why we're glad the Meadow Brook Concours d'Elegance, taking place Sunday, August 3, is playing host to the Taylor Aerocar. Built in 1956, this is perhaps the most successful flying car of all time. That's right, despite our fascination with flying cars, the best one was probably built more than 50 years ago. If you're on hand at the Meadow Brook event on August 3rd you can see one up close. More »

Rocket Powered Flying Citroen DS, All Our Memes Are Belong to Fantômas

Ben Wojdyla — Tue, 27 May 2008 16:20:00 EDT

We've never heard of what is a apparently a classic French character named Fantômas, but apprently he's a master of disguise and miscreant extraordinaire. More important to us though, in a 1964 flick, he drove a flying, rocket-powered Citroen DS. As we can see in this chase sequence between a Mini Moke and the DS in question, the transformation is brilliantly controlled through the HVAC controls and lets the creepy gray-faced anti-hero escape without a scratch. Let's just hope an underinformed passenger doesn't try to warm up the cabin in thick traffic. More »

Russian Aerocar Promises All Purpose Travel - New Cold War

Ben Wojdyla — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:45:00 EDT

With the development of the Russian-made Aerocar, it has become radically evident that the United States is now embroiled in the midst of a flying car technology race. While we have the sleek and the supposedly in-production Moller M200G, it's only limited to flying at heights of only 10 feet. The Russians have developed a version of an ultralight which can fly at up to 160 KPH and reach heights of 4,000 meters while on road it can top out at 80 KPH. Certainly it's not as elegant a solution, but they're working on a new and improved version which will fly at speeds of 450 KPH and travel on land at 100 KPH. You heard it here first, watch out for a flying Vlad buzz bombing a quiet American town near you! [RussiaToday] More »

LaBiche Aerospace FSC-1: Another Flying Car Just Around the Corner.

Ben Wojdyla — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 10:20:00 EST

It's been a little while since we last had any flying cars (the hoaky Monster Garage created flying Panoz Esperante from the last BJ Auction comes to mind). Here's a nifty concept from LaBiche Aerospace called the FSC-1. Rolls right off the tongue doesn't it? The ambitious concept features something which actually looks like a car and does its best transformer act to become a multi-winged flying wonder potentially capable of 275 mph. Of course, they're just waiting for the funding as step one, step two is... something, and finally step three: huge profits. More »

Commenter of the Day: Gerard Manley Hopkins Edition

Matthew DeBord — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:30:00 EST

As we have learned through the harsh tutor of experience, you can give people the past, the present, and above all else the future, and no matter what, they will still demand flying cars. We're getting there! Closer every day! And not always safely. It's understandable, this earthbound contempt for beloved vehicles that can't fly yet. Even retro-tech of a highly prescient variety is no salve. And so, onward (upward?) to the commenter of the day. More »

Cell Craft Flying Cars Will Be the Future, Once Inventor Does More Inventing

Wes Siler — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:45:00 EST

Gino d'Ignazio Gizio has a dream. A dream where the average person has access to his or her own flying car. A dream where long commutes are a thing of the past and people take to the skies at 350mph with the freedom and ease we currently enjoy in our land-based cars (as long as we don't live someplace where there's, you know, traffic). Gino wants his Cell Craft to facilitate that dream. The problem, he hasn't quite figured out how it works yet. More »

Barrett-Jackson: Panoz Esperante Flying Car Takes Off for Only $45,000

Ray Wert — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 17:15:00 EST

Jalopnik still loves flying cars — it may still be part of our masthead, we can't remember — but here's a perfect example. It's the $100,000 Panoz Esperante converted by Jesse James of Monster Garage into an airborne vehicle whose first flight matched the success of the Wright Brothers. Seriously — they took it to Kitty Hawk where it actually flew in a straight line and then hit the ground just as hard as the Wright plane did. Here's the full description of the "Flying Car" from Barrett-Jackson, which just sold for a steal of a price at $45,000 (just under $55,000 with the auction fees): More »

Moller Expresses "Substantial Doubt" About Flying Car Future

Matt Hardigree — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:30:00 EST

Oh Noes! Our dreams of owning a Moller M400 flying car may be in jeopardy. The company's deficit climbed to $40.6 million in the third quarter of 2007, with a quarterly loss of $81,071. Execs at the company say that a lot of capital is required of to continue the quest for the vehicle and that they have "substantial doubt" regarding the possibility of operations continuing. Shares of the company dropped to $0.81 with 1,700 shares being passed around. This is what happens when you fly to close to the sun... More »

Mean Automakers Deny Existence Of Flying Cars

Ray Wert — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 09:15:00 EST

We understand why Onion News Network anchor Brandon Armstrong is arguing so passionately for the existence of flying cars and it may seem mean for GM, Ford and Toyota to dash his hopes so stupendously — but Brandon's barking up the wrong tree. If Brandon covered the cult of cars as obsessively as we do, he's know all too well there aren't any flying cars in the secret labs of GM, Ford or Toyota. It's Honda that has all of them. Silly Brandon Armstrong — such an auto industry n00b. (Hat tip to Tony!) More »

PAL-V Flying Car Nearing Production! We're Totally Serious! No, Really!

Ray Wert — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 10:45:00 EDT

It's a Carver. Wait, it's a gyroscope. No, it's both. It's called the PAL-V and it stands for Personal Air and Land Vehicle and it's supposedly going to be built very soon by a company named PAL-V Europe BV. What we think is it looks like it's the next flying car nearing production we fear will never end up being built. Based on the Carver One tri-wheel car, the PAL-V supposedly will use the same Dynamic Vehicle Control (DVC) system that keeps the Carver going straight and true in turns. That system automatically adjusts the tilt angle of the cockpit to the speed and acceleration of the vehicle enabling what the folks behind this device-to-never-be call "a plane-like tilting before cornering." That's great and all — but how does it fly? Simple — all they need to do is drop a set of gyrocopter blades on top. Sure, why not? Jeez — why do we continue to follow this dream...
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Mainstream Media Finds Flying Car, We'll Pretend To Be Surprised

Ray Wert — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

World's First Flying Car Enters Production

Wes Siler — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 16:59:00 EDT

In a moment we've been waiting for since the first time we saw The Jetsons, the first flying car has finally gone on sale. Just like the car George uses to drop off the kids, the Moller M200G Volantor is shaped like a saucer. To avoid the need to pass FAA regulations, the civilian version of the Volantor is restricted to heights of 10 feet, but can travel as fast as 50mph and fly for up to 90minutes. Military or rescue versions could be unencumbered by such limitations. Depending on the number of orders, prices could be as low as $90,000. Video of the Volantor in action after the jump.
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Flying Car, Sort of: First X-Hawk Could Be Ready By 2009

Mike Spinelli — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 07:13:55 EST

It sure is tough to find flying-car news these days. (C'mon, Moller, we are you shipping?) But the Seattle Times comes through with a profile on Rafi Yoeli, the Israeli conceptualist behind the X-Hawk urban rescue vehicle, which broached our radar range back in 2004. Apparently, Yoeli's gotten a basic prototype to rise three feet, and says a marketable version could be in play by 2010, with a price tag of $1.5 million. Not quite the Volkswagen Beetle of flying cars, but any progress is good progress. – Mike Spinelli More »

Transport Revolution! The Great Hoverchair of San Pedro!

Davey G. Johnson — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 20:45:00 EST

Despite what y'all think, we at Jalopnik to do not spend our days tearing around in Torino Talladegas playing the Angry Samoans at high volume, outrunning the Los Angeles Police Department and California Highway Patrol, mowing down sidewalk fruit stands and supping on the finest lobster bisque at sunset on the beach with Jodie Kidd on one arm and Sabine Schmitz on the other as the sun drops behind Catalina. We haven't even illicitly airbrushed a Viking mural on the side of an Isuzu I-Mark in nigh on three months. No, mostly we just sit around and look for things to write about. Now and then, to clear our head and purchase a refreshment and/or snack, we walk the half-block to the bodega. This afternoon, we stumbled upon it: The Great Hoverchair of San Pedro, a previously-thought-mythical device designed to ease Angelenos' commuting woes somewhere in the early 1990s. More »

Moller Skycar on eBay!

Davey G. Johnson — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 19:30:00 EDT

Reader ~~Benny~~ ~~Anni-Frid~~ ~~Agnetha~~ Bjorn tipped us off to the fact that Moller has the M400X Skycar prototype up for bid on everyone's favorite clearing house of H sker D test-pressings and macrame Spiro Agnew effigies. The Davis, California-based company's currently looking at a cool $1,776,800.00 with a week to go, but the airborne conveyance has yet to to hit reserve. We're betting on Susan Powter for the win. – Davey G. Johnson More »

GM's Flying Car Virus

Davey G. Johnson — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 15:15:00 EDT

Throw up an Angelfire page, complete with conspiracy-theory and Chomsky namedrops, then post some videos of airborne GM vehicles that look, unlike the lighter-than-air Vauxhall Astra VXR once seen on Top Gear, like they're the product of digital effects rather than remote-controlled floating cars, and well, you've got a semi-neat viral campaign. [Thanks to Josh for the tip.] More »

See, Flying Cars Do Exist! Honda Accord Flies 150 Feet Into Side Of NY House

Ray Wert — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 14:30:00 EDT

We've been telling folks for years flying cars existed —but who knew proof would come to us from the sleepy little town of Coram, NY? That's where this morning the owner of a Honda Accord took a 150 foot jump off a dirt hill and flew into the the side of a two-story house. So maybe it's not so much proof of flying cars — but it sure as hell is entertaining. Although normally we prefer our entertainment without death and dismemberment. [Hat tip to Steven!] More »

Flying Cars? Streetable Aircraft? What Do You Mean They Won't Work?

maustin — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 18:45:00 EDT

Whatever m you call them, our nerdy, tech-obsessed sibling Gizmodo knows an expert that says you won't be getting a hover conversion on your El Camino any time in the near future, much less by 2015. There are a few very real problems, one of which is that airplanes make for crappy cars and cars make for crappy planes. And then you have to deal with the complexity of flying. Do you really think all of the idiots on the road can deal with stall speeds and crosswinds? So for now, the flying car is a pipe dream and we're still stuck following Casey Kasem's advice to keep our feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars. More »

Gimmie My Flying Car Already: The LaBiche Aerospace FSC-1

Mike Spinelli — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 09:13:27 EDT

When it comes to flying cars, it's hard to tell the legit developers from the kooks. Ever since we hung our bald-headed shingle in 2004, we've been getting e-mail from teams of self-described aerospace engineers who assure us they've mocked up the vehicle that'll have us Jetsoning around town like past futurists promised us we'd be. All they need, most say, is a sugar daddy to make it all come to pass. Not to belittle the work of Labiche Aerospace, who've informed us of their plans to build the FSC-1 (pictured), but frankly, we're somewhat jaded by the lack of progress in this area. Still, any hope is good, and the Labiche people say they plan to offer a kit for $175,000, and even talk buyers through the building and flying of it (at an estimated 275 mph). Sure it's outlandish, and, sure, the missing pieces in the car's story outnumber the non-missing ones. But think of it this way: What if you didn't find out until your neighbor rolled one out of his garage? You'd want to kick our asses, right? More »