Fan powered flying car

200811111958


Charles Platt pointed me to this Times Online article about a fan-poweerd flying car. The British inventor is going to fly it from London to Timbuktu.

"This thing will launch itself without any pilot input," says Cardozo. "You just open it up and it goes. The more power you put on, the faster you go until you come off the ground [at 35mph]. The wing will basically lock above you [once airborne] and stay there, without weaving, at speeds of up to 80mph."

Fully road-legal – the car passed the government's single vehicle approval test last month – and designed to run on bioethanol, Cardozo's Skycar is powered by a modified 140bhp Yamaha R1 superbike engine with a lightweight automatic CVT (continuously variable transmission) gear-box from a snowmobile. It boasts Ferrari-beating acceleration on land, an air speed of up to 80mph and can swap between road and flight modes in minutes.

The flying car