Long time readers know I've got a soft-spot for the Carver and it's green Yank cousin the Venture One.
While we are still waiting to see these fantastic toys.... er, uh, I mean engineering marvels stateside, another Dutch company has taken the basic Carver design, and well...
The only way I can think to explain it, is the designers were in an Amsterdam "coffee" house and they took the Venture One's tagline of "Fly the Road" a little too literally. Because the PAL-V has rotors which unfold and turn it into a small autogyro.
That's right kids, it's the 21st century, and HERE is your flying car.
For many decades people have been dreaming of a flying car to enable fast and easy door to door transportation. Until 2004/2005 this has not been possible because of the following reasons:
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Flying regulations sofar did not allow certification of standard technology, resulting in a cost price which is far too high to make a solution affordable.
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Flying regulations sofar made licensing complicated.
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To make a flying vehicle its body needs to be narrow but narrow vehicles are unstable in the corners while driving.
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Governmental bodies in many countries were not in favor of personal flying.
But this is now solved:
New certification rules in the US (2004) and in Europe (2005) allow for easy certification with standard components enabling a drastic cost breakthrough for airplanes under 600kg.
Since 2004 (US) and 2005 (Europe) new licensing rules enable easy and affordable access to personal flying.
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This stability problem has recently been solved by Carver Engineering (see www.carver-engineering.com) by using the unique DVC(TM) technology for which patents have been granted. PAL-V Europe BV has an exclusive right to apply this technology for their application."
In the US the “High-way In The Sky” (HITS) -program is being developed to allow extensive personal air traffic. In Europe initiatives have been initiated to develop a copy of this system. Air regulation and certification bodies in Europe have been reorganized to change into enabling bodies instead of blocking bodies.
image © 2006 Spark Design Engineering
via Glowguy on ModernVespa
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1 comment:
This vehicle is interesting, that I will agree.
However, I find very little to no information about the top portion of the drive capacity, in other words the top rotor apeers to be at minimum insufficient for what would be required for, not only lift as well as to drive the blades adequately.
I'm sure given the way the website is now displayed you can no longer see the top portion of the vehicle as I'm probably not the only one who has commented.
Although the concept scenes sound there are some technical aspects that I find less than desirable.
First the drive mechanism for the lift, as I had stated firstly seems inadequate
Secondly what type of energy/power is used to turn the rotors, even if the vehicle ways less than a thousand pounds for a two hour drive/fly would require a significant amount of energy.
If there is a sufficient answer, I apologize for wasting your time.
But, I have been following MOLLER international since the early nineties the-m150
incorporates similar aspects although ground transport would be limited, four rotary lift motors, 2 per cell have an inherent safety/redundancy while one rotor does not.
The ground version of the vehicle seems very practical however the low profile could lead to visibility problems for other drivers.
however the bright colors may be a solution and I sure that it will be popular.
I know I would buy one.
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