flying car roundup: flying cars are back in the news this week with dezso molnar’s concept car aiming to take off in the mojave desert. it is an exciting move by the inventor and his willingness to have others involved to push the project signals a bright future for all personal air vehicle technology. perhaps it is only a matter of time before you can use the roof of a city office building as an airstrip to let a flying car glide you back home from work.

 

it may be quite some time before we see these fantasies realized, however with the shower of flying vehicle concepts being produced at the present moment, it gives positive signals for these sci-fi machines to be sat in the driveway one day.

 

here’s a quick look at the various concepts that are in development in the world of flying cars and motorcycles covered by designboom.

 

 

terrafugia’s driverless flying car concept fixed wing street legal aircraft

flying car roundup designboom
terrafugia ‘TF-X’ soars through the evening sky — rendering

 

terrafugia was founded in 2006 and the company is on a mission to bring personal flight to homes everywhere. their latest concept, the ‘TF-X’ is a fixed wing street legal aircraft with electric ground drive and electric power assist on take off and landing. see more of the project on designboom here.

 

 

 

collapsible aeromobil 3.0 flying car

flying car roundup designboom
aeromobil 4.0 prototype transforms from car to plane

 

the fourth prototype of the flying car, the ‘aeromobil 3.0′ features a number of advanced technologies that shortens its take-off time. it transforms in seconds from an automobile to an airplane, and incorporates many improvements to the previous ‘2.5‘ model. as a car, the ‘aeromobil 3.0’ is road legal, drives on regular gasoline and can fit into standard parking spaces. see more of the project on designboom here.

 

 

 

keshe flying car ‘appearance’ in the sky

flying car roundup designboom
flying car makes mysterious appearance in 2013 — rendering

 

one of the first examples where we had thought the alien technology had been realized was when the keshe foundation released this video in 2013, showing what appears to be the form of an automobile taking off into the sky. the low quality resolution video has the right amount of pixels missing to make it seem convincing.

 

 

 

 

ehang 184 autonomous single-passenger drone touches down

flying car roundup designboom
ehang 184 drone doesn’t require any form of pilot’s license

 

designed to carry a single passenger, the ehang ‘184’ drone is meant for short to medium distance personal air transportation that doesn’t require a pilot’s license. the 12-inch touchscreen display simplifies destination selection with an automated flight system that will take over and manage tasks such as air traffic communication, obstacle avoidance, plus navigation. see more of the project on designboom here.

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