I saw something really fun in Composites World this week. There is a company in the Netherlands that has gotten close to scaled up production of its Personal Air Landing Vehicle (PAL-V) with the production of its first set of rotor blades and attachment of them to their flying car prototype. This thing looks a little strange at first glance, but if you take a look at the pic below, what you will see is the rotor blades folded out and ready to be rotated up so that this thing becomes a powered gyroplane. When it is turned back into a car, the rotor blades fold back against the car and make it legal width and length to travel on any of the roads in Europe.
PAL-V with Composite Rotor Blades Designed by the Royal NLR – Netherland Aerospace Centre
The company that is developing this flying car is called PAL-V, headquartered in Raamdonksveer, the Netherlands. And yes, it does look a bit strange, but you have to give this company a break about that – they are Dutch, and they are also out on the bleeding edge of technology for personal transportation.
And, of course, the bulk of this vehicle is made using composite materials. Again, this is one of those areas where composites enable companies like PAL-V to even imagine building something like this. That’s why I thought that this was a fun topic for this newsletter. And, of course, it also got me to thinking that there must be other companies that are developing these urban air mobility vehicles that can transform themselves from flying to driving down the highway.
I thought initially that this would only be in countries in Europe that are somewhat more progressive than here in the US. And I also thought so because Europe is so much more densely populated than the US is. And of course I was wrong about that.
There is a company in San Mateo, CA, Alef Aeronautics, Inc. that received its FAA certification to begin testing their flying car in order to get it qualified as a personal aircraft. And this thing is actually pretty cool looking, thanks to a designer that Alef hired who worked at Bugatti. And along with the FAA testing, they are working to get their new “Model A” certified as a low-speed vehicle by the NTSB so that it can be licensed to travel on city streets.
Alef Model A Prototype
What is unique and pretty much out of the box thinking in design of this flying car is that for forward flight it turns sideways and swivels about 90 degrees so that the left and right sides of the car become like the wings on a biplane. And the cabin is a sphere on spherical bearings, so it tilts and swivels with the car. This allows the operator and passenger to always face forward. It is still a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, so it takes of vertically and then does it’s rotating and swiveling to fly, and then does the opposite for it to land and transition back into a car.
This “flying car” is of course all electric, has a carbon fiber composite body, and apparently has a flight range of 110 miles and a highway range of about 200 miles. To accomplish this feat, they needed to use carbon fiber. Otherwise, their flying car would not be able to fly.
The car uses electric motors in the hubs of the wheels for when it is on the ground and operating as a car. For flight, it has eight more motor/controller/propellor systems that are built into the body of the car. The grid of vents on the top surface of the car allow air to get to the propellors buried in the body of this thing so that it can take off and do its little rotating, swiveling dance to turn and fly forward. The software to control all of this they have been working on for a number of years, and apparently have gotten it to the point where they can start FAA certification testing.
According to the article I saw the Alef Model A is intended to sell for about $300k and Alef expects to begin deliveries by the end of 2025. So, we will see if that happens. Hopefully they will be successful and get through the FAA certification process fairly quickly so they can start selling these things and make back some of their investment.
There is another startup in China, XPeng Aeroht that has taken a much more conventional approach to its introduction into the flying personal mobility space. This thing is a tilting rotor, 6 bladed VTOL aircraft that folds up to be carried around by what the company calls their Land Aircraft Carrier.
Chinese "Flying Car" from XPeng Aeroht
Land Aircraft Carrier with XPeng Aeroht “Flying Car” folded up and getting ready to go down the road
As of November of this year, the company said that it had about 2000 orders for this thing with the purchasers being mostly wealthy entrepreneurs, CEOs, celebrities, and flying enthusiasts that have the cash to buy one of these things.
And yet another concept is the LuftCar from Orlando, Florida. This is more like some of the early (like 1947) concepts for how to make a flying car. Their approach is also two pieces, but the ground vehicle is the main part of the two-piece system and the 6 rotor VTOL is a separate piece that the ground vehicle backs into. Once these two pieces are locked together the whole thing is a hydrogen powered tilting rotor VTOL.
Apparently this company received a $100M what is called a “Term Sheet Offer” from a European investor group to begin scaling up the vehicle and getting through certifications. This European group is takin ga 10% stake in the company for their $100M investment, so it is apparent that this take on a flying car may actually see the light of day.
Artist's Conception of LuftCar's Detachable Road Vehicle
LuftCar is interested in all sorts of abilities to transport people and goods, including for the military. To that end, they recently hired a former Director of the Army’s DEVCOM (Development Command) as their VP for Defense Strategy. So maybe the color of this thing will eventually be olive drab and possibly green camo if the Army actually buys a few of these things.
And finally, just for some more fun, I did allude to attempts to make a flying car from 1947, so I thought I would give you a final taste of how far this technology has really come.
Convair Model 118 from 1947
As you can see, this idea has been around for a long time. So, now that we have the benefits of lightweight, strong, stiff composite materials, these sorts of things can become a reality.
So, are we living in the age of the Jetsons or not? That is for all of you to answer. I certainly hope you had fun reading this one. I had fun writing it.
That’s about it for this week. I hope everyone that reads these posts enjoys them as much as I enjoy writing them. As usual I will post this first on my website – www.nedpatton.com – as well as on LinkedIn. And if anyone wants to provide comments to this, I welcome them with open arms. Comments, criticisms, etc. are all quite welcome. I really do want to engage in a conversation with all of you about composites because we can learn so much from each other as long as we share our own perspectives.
I also wanted to remind everyone that I have finished the final manuscript of my second book and it is ready to go to my publisher. I only need to get permission to use a few more images and this thing is in the hands of McFarland Books. I have talked about this one now for a few months now to let everyone know it is about what I have been writing in these newsletters for the last 6 months or so – sustainability of composites and a path to the future that does not include using fossil fuels for either the raw materials or the process energy to make composites.
Finally, I still need to plug my first book, so here’s the plug. The book pretty much covers the watershed in composites, starting with a brief history of composites, then introducing the Periodic Table and why Carbon is such an important and interesting element. The book was published and made available last August and is available both on Amazon and from McFarland Books – my publisher. However, the best place to get one is to go to my website and buy one. I will send you a signed copy for the same price you would get charged on Amazon, except that I charge $8 shipping. Anyway, here’s the link to get your signed copy: https://www.nedpatton.com/product-page/the-string-and-glue-of-our-world-signed-copy. And as usual, here’s a picture of the book.
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