If you’re over, say, 30, you can probably remember hearing in your childhood that “in a few years, we’ll all have flying cars.” You’ve likely given up hope, but apparently Toyota hasn’t. They’ve filed a patent request for a new design.
Maybe not such a new design: It looks a bit like a Prius with a stack of wings on top. And multiple-wing designs go all the way back to the Wright Brothers.
A Washington Post article this week points out some of the pitfalls (aside from the obvious ones of maneuvering in a swarm of buzzing aero-cars in rush hour and the serious consequences of airborne fender-benders):
- When you stack wings, it interferes with the high pressure above/low pressure below required for lift.
- Cars need front-end weight to steer; planes need rear-end weight to take-off and land.
- Car engines are water-cooled, which adds weight, but air-cooled engines don’t sit well in traffic.
But Toyota’s effort is clearly early-stage thinking, and could end up going nowhere; Toyota’s not saying what its plans are, or how the technology could show up in other uses. Meanwhile, the Post article has interesting photos and videos of other flying car ideas, including the one below, by aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss.
