The New Convertible Wingsuits and jet wings thrill, but may not seem very practical for everyday use. And it takes a lot of planning to load a hang glider on the top of a car and drive to the nearest steep hill when the wind is blowing exactly right. What if it were possible to just step into your car and drive it to a nearby strip of grass or pavement. T en activate the car’s wings and take off without ever getting out? Unveiled in 2014, the AeroMobil 3.0 brings
air travel to the front door. While it’s easy to board a commercial airplane for a short trip, a traveler spends almost as much time driving to and from the airport and getting on and off the airplane as they do actually fl ying to their destination. A fl ying car parked in the garage could make the trip much more quickly and without having to stand in line. T e AeroMobil’s designers improved on
earlier fl ying car prototypes to make the 3.0 version smaller and easier to use. On the road, it drives like a regular car. It runs on the same kind of gasoline and can reach speeds of 160 kilometers per hour. Two people sit comfortably inside and the vehicle fi ts into a regular parking space like other cars. By unfolding the wings, the car quickly
transforms into an airplane. It needs a strip of grass or open pavement about 200 meters long to take off . Once the AeroMobil 3.0 reaches about 130 kilometers per hour, enough liſt is created to overcome the force of gravity. T e car soars into the air! When fl ying, the AeroMobil 3.0 can travel
as far as 700 kilometers at up to 200 kilometers per hour. Back on the ground, the wings tuck in and the nearest road leads to the traveler’s destination.
Future Flight Strap yourself in. T ink about where you want to go. Take off . How much easier could fl ying get? T e future holds such potential. NASA’s Puffi n is a VTOL, or vertical take off and landing aircraſt . Its tail splits into four legs that allow it to stand upright in a space about the size of a delivery truck. T e vehicle takes off vertically like a space rocket, and then turns horizontally to jet off to its destination. T e Puffi n gives what its designers call a
“horse–and–rider kind of experience.”T is is because the aircraſt s control systems actually “feel” the pilots body movements. Once the pilot has mastered the simple controls its just a matter of opening the door, making yourself comfortable, and taking off . T e Puffi n does not carry jet fuel. Batteries
provide power for the small electric engines. Current battery technology limits Puffi n to trips of only 80 kilometers at a time. Yet it can do that pretty quickly, fl ying over 200 kilometers per hour. Who knows? Maybe Puffi n and other VTOLs will be the commuter vehicles of the future. Imagine yourself 20 years from now. Will
you be jumping into a VTOL for a quick trip to the grocery store? From the looks of these inventions, the skies will be quite busy!
AeroMobil hopes to have its fl ying car ready for sale in 2017
16 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXTREME EXPLORER
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