Worlds First Flying Skycar Takes Off from London to Timbuktu

It's not exactly a car that can fly like an airplane, but pretty close and pretty neat!

Worlds First Flying Skycar Takes Off from London to Timbuktu

A group of daredevils set sail on the ultimate magical childhood dream adventure today, traveling in a flying car for a 42 day journey from London to Timbuktu — a place that’s had a mystical, “middle of nowhere” reputation for decades. The ‘Parajet Skycar’ can change from ground to flying mode in a mere 3 minutes, and will make the epic 3,600-mile (5,800-kilometer) journey by both land and air.

Looks pretty cool to me, kind of like a "go anywhere and do anything" car to me! (At least on dry land and in the air anyways)

Come across something your rugged road legal off road buggy can't handle, just fly over it!

The “world’s first road legal bio-fuelled flying car” is essentially a 1,000lb (480 kilo) dune buggy with a fan motor and paragliding wing attached. It can reach altitudes of up to 15,000 feet (4,570 meters), with a normal cruising height of 2,000 to 3,000 feet (600 to 900 meters), and a flight range of 185 miles (300 kilometers).

Skycar runs on the ground on a biofuel-powered 4-cylinder, 1,000cc engine, accelerating from zero to 100 km/h in 4.5 seconds flat, has a top speed of 110 mph (180 km/h), with a range of 240 miles (306 kilometers), and an independent 4-wheel suspension to cope with the toughest terrain.

Not exactly the "flying car" that people usually envision for everyday use, but it looks like it would sure be a fun recreational vehicle!

And it's not as expensive as you might think.

He plans to sell Skycars to the public for “beating congestion, or providing a low-cost method of reaching remote regions” at $76,000 (£50,000) each if it can prove its mettle on the Timbuktu mission.

A little too expensive for me right now, but, who knows, in a few years, ....

Here's a link to the their website.

Parajet Sky Car

This has been posted like 3 times about this skycar.

It isnt a real skycar. Just a small dunebuggy with a large fan in the back hung under a parafoil.

Might as well have been just a regular hang glider with a small engine and prop.



Cheers!!!!

I wonder if Moller's innovations will ever become commercial...?



but personally, I like this one much more...

I like the saucer version better. I linked to those videos in another thread about this parafoil dunebuggy.

However I think the Moller skycar is a bit more stable and would fit in the standard road based vehicle lanes on the typical roadways. The saucer would be a bit of a problem in that aspect.

Still, that saucer looks like a lot of fun!!


Cheers!!!!

And yet I still think the parafoil sky car is the best of the lot. How is it not a skycar? It is a car, that can fly. Rather than slag it off because it doesn't look like what one would expect I think they are to be congratulated on producing a cheap and practical solurion for a fraction of the cost.

The clincher for me is, imagine you are airborne and the engine stops, which of the three would you rather be in?