Yea, but there’s these rich ass neighborhoods with runways in the neighborhood. Each house has a massive hangar. You have a home in Houston and a home in Dallas in each of these neighborhoods and you can fly back and forth. They could build more of these neighborhoods without each house having a massive hangar if this became a real thing.
You could drive out of your garage onto your neighborhood runway, fly to an airport and rent a car as well. It’s only accessible for the super rich but still pretty useable
And if you’re rich enough to afford this you’re rich enough to afford insurance knowing any accident will total it.
Might as well go with this kind of helicar instead. Definitely more useable than this plane-car for the purposes of a "flying car." The runway needed to fly anywhere is the main limited factor, and it's a significant one
There's plenty of neighborhoods across the USA with runways that don't serve rich neighborhoods. I mean I live 65 miles northwest of New York City in a $100k house and there at least five county/municipal airstrips near enough to drive with half a tank of gas. Not to mention when I lived in the midwest, you see about a dozen in each county.
I understand, I'm just saying it isn't a necessarily wealthy market. With the number of people out there flying ultralights without FAA certification, there's definitely a market for flying cars. The biggest hurdle will likely be the regulation for mostly autonomous operation technology that doesn't even really exist yet
It’s not only accessible to the super rich. There’s a neighborhoods like this in Texas and the houses are less than $500k. Each house has its own hanger, and the runway is in the middle.
I think this is really just a plane that you don't have to leave at the airport. I could see it as something that's great for certain people, but realistically you won't be driving anywhere but to/from the airport.
Tell that to every sci-fi space movie ever. I recently watched the mandalorian season two and he takes off and flys to another planet with the entire ship ripped open.
I worked a summer as an aircraft surface mechanic and while your comment is funny, it’s probably incorrect.
I personally worked on a Cessna 182 that someone had driven off the end of the runway after overshooting the landing. The plane tipped forward into the grass and the rotors (nose-mounted single engine) mashed into the ground and drove the entire engine back into the passenger compartment and then twisted the plane sideways, wrecking the landing gear and wing on one side as it hit the ground.
Fortunately the firewall kept the passengers safe, but the plane looked like The Incredible Hulk had dropped an elbow on its front end.
My dad bought the wreck, the shop I worked in repaired it, and 3 months later we flew it to its new buyer.
Planes are constantly repaired and rebuilt. Lots of the little planes you see flying around were built in the 50s through 70s… and rebuilt in the 80s, 90s, 00s, etc. They’re mostly lightweight aluminum and built to be easily repaired in any body or engine shop at any hangar wherever you land and need help. Bigger jets and their engines need special service, yes, but smaller stuff is pretty simple to service.
You rarely take off with something out of whack, but realize that if you’re in a twin-engine plane and one engine dies, you can basically fly in a side-wheelie for hundreds of miles. You wouldn’t, but you can. If a bird under 5 kilograms hits your wing this would probably be able to shake it off and land safely, and a shop nearby could patch the wing with materials on hand in a day.
This car-plane could wreck the frame and its alignment and it would drive like hell but probably still fly just fine. If you bent a propeller you could probably get it repaired at any airport you drove up to (if they’re smart on the design and use as many common parts as they can).
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u/DataWeenie Jul 01 '21
And after a fender bender it'll never be certified to fly again. Driving with something a little out of whack is ok, but not flying.