FX.co ★ Sky for cars: what companies create cars of the future

Some states understand the importance of developing the automotive industry using new technologies. It is expected that their use will allow to conquer the sky in the future and gain a significant share of the market of flying vehicles.

One of the developers of flying cars of the future, Toyota Motor, is investing in the technology of the Skydrive car. Next year, according to the company, it is planned to test prototypes in the manned mode of the car. Toyota Motor believes that it will be the world's first serial airmobile. Skydrive is a manned quadrocopter with a maximum flying speed of 100 km/h, rising to a height of 10 meters.

Another creator of promising cars of the future is PAL-V from the Netherlands. It demonstrated one of the rare vehicles that can move along the highway and through the air, a flying Liberty trike. The aircraft part of the flying machine is made according to the scheme of the auto-gyro (utility rotary aircraft), and the basis of the road part is the chassis of the tricycle Carver. The maximum speed of the machine on the highway and by air is the same - 160 km/h. By the end of next year, PAL-V plans to sell the first cars.

The Slovak firm AeroMobil outstripped the rest, beginning to accept orders for a flying car in April this year. The prototype of the novelty made its first flight five years ago. The car gets in the flight mode in three minutes, according to the developers. The maximum speed on earth is 160 km/h, in the air - 360 km/h. The price of the AeroMobil aircar varies from 1.2 to 1.5 million euros, depending on the equipment. Despite the current acceptance of orders, the first deliveries will begin no earlier than 2020, declare in AeroMobil.

The largest international service for online taxi order Uber promises to demonstrate a flying car in three years. Six years later, the company plans to use it to transport passengers. The cost of a flying taxi will not exceed the current tariffs of Uber, the company says. What technologies will be used in the development and how Uber will be able to achieve such cheapness is unknown.

The American company Terrafugia offers its own version of a flying car with folding wings. Many consider it a driving plane, rather than a flying machine. On the highway, it speeds up to 100 km/h, and in the air - 161 km/h. The first Transition prototype flew seven years ago. At the moment, the company is creating a prototype of the third generation. According to the statements of Terrafugia, the first deliveries of machines are possible in 2019. The expected price of the novelty is $329,000.

The German Carplane is also developing a flying car, which is officially certified. Sales of new items will start in 2019, the company says. Carplane is a two-body aircraft, similar to the American F-82 Twin Mustang. Its 9.715 m span wing has an area of 10.72 m2 and can be extended in 20 seconds from road mode to aircraft mode. Carplane has retractable rear keels with stabilizers, extending the machine for almost 2 meters for a flight.

The creation of a flying machine is also handled by Airbus and Italdesign. Their creation - Pop.Up - is not a transformable mechanism, but a modular system. It is still considered a concept, not a full-fledged machine. The passenger capsule of this car can dock with two separate electric modules - ground and air, and also be built into public transport - a train, a subway or a vacuum "hyper-loop". The system can lay the route depending on the needs of passengers, traffic congestion, the cost of movement and other factors, the concept developers assure.