From “Chitchitty Bang Bang Bang” and “Back to the Future” to “Blade Runner” and even “Harry Potter,” we’ve always been fascinated by flying cars on the big screen, longing for them to become a reality. In fact, for decades, people have often said that the advent of flying cars will be a sign that the future has truly arrived. So far, this reality has been confined to the realm of science fiction. But what if I told you that the future is closer than you think: in just a few short years, we’ll be able to put your car into airplane mode? Pal-V is building the world’s first legal flying car, and it’s getting really close to taking to the skies. The Pal-V Liberty is an amazing feat of engineering.

How does a car fly?

PP845-3BSE042235R1 The Pal-V flies like a gyroplane. A gyroplane differs from a helicopter in that the main rotor system is not powered by an engine. It has a propeller on its back that propels it forward; The main rotor, on the other hand, relies on aerodynamic rotation. It’s kind of like a windmill, but rotated 90 degrees. This provides sufficient lift for the aircraft to fly, giving it the opportunity to be a very stable aircraft to fly, and therefore easy to fly, but also very safe. It can fly 3.5 km and has a maximum airspeed of about 180 km/h. After landing, the rotor system can be easily folded back into drive mode, allowing it to be driven on the road at a top speed of 160 km/h. With flying cars, you can fly from any door to any door in the world. Joris Wolters, marketing director at Pal-V, said: “You can go from your home, drive to the nearest airstrip – there are about 10,000 registered airstrips in Europe and about 14,000 in the US – deploy your aircraft, take off, fly 500 kilometres, land again, and then drive to your final destination.

What does it look like?

It feels a bit like James Bond. We don’t have an ejection seat, but it really looks like one. It has both an electronic flight instrument for flight and a driving display. It is a two-seater aircraft that can accommodate two people and about 20 kilograms of luggage. It has both a normal steering wheel and a flight joystick. In driving mode, the vehicle is lowered to increase stability and the rotors fold up, so the vehicle is very compact – just 4 meters long. But in flight mode, it rises about 35 centimeters, and when the rotors are deployed, it is nearly 11 meters long. It’s quite an engineering challenge to get it from a fully stretched state to a compact car that you can drive comfortably on the road, and more importantly, you can park it in a regular parking space. Because if you have a flying car that doesn’t fit anywhere, the practicality of your flying car is greatly reduced. The cabin is located at the front of the vehicle and the engine at the rear. It is powered by a Rotax four-cylinder engine.

PP845-3BSE042235R1

Is it too heavy to fly?

To reduce weight, the flying car has only one wheel in the front and two wheels in the back. The seat itself is not adjustable, as this adds weight. But the pedals and steering wheel are adjustable. The body is heavily carbon fiber, and the doors are made of composite materials. Pal-V’s 2012 model, which began production in 2009, is the first flying car. In addition to showing investors, they want to show the world that not only can flying cars be built, but they can be built within existing regulations – which is important when you want to bring a car to market in the real world. Wolters explained, “It takes a long time to change regulations, and in our view, building cars within existing regulations is the only viable way to bring cars to market.”

PP845-3BSE042235R1 Safety problem

For safety reasons, much of the testing is done on the ground. The company uses a range of different vehicles for testing, from modified Porsches with aircraft engines, to their own Pal-V Liberty, to four-ton pickups used to test the rotor system – which can generate up to 3G or 3,000 kg of force. In the air, you will be flying at a constant speed, but when driving, its speed will constantly change, so the load on the engine will be different. The Liberty can be driven on highways, but as soon as it is modified into an airplane, it will become a regular aircraft, rather than a special category of aircraft. This is very important for compliance.” All the conditions are in place for this vehicle to enter the market.” “The infrastructure is there, the regulations are there, the pilot licenses are there, so we don’t need to create that,” Wolters said. We just need to add another car, and that part is hard enough. We have been working to bring this vehicle to market since 2012.”