Air Miles: Are Flying Cars In Our Near Future?

Regardless of how many advancements we make in the traditional automobile – hybrids, GPS, ethanol – it seems we won't be happy until we've conquered the sky as well as the road.

Read more articles from the February 2008 issue of InventHelp's newsletter for inventors

The flying car continues to be the inventor's ultimate dream. More than 70 designs for flying cars have been patented since the early 20th century, but none have been viable – until now.

Obviously, creating a flying car requires an incredible amount of engineering intelligence, not to mention patience. Where better to find the engineer who could make the flying car happen than at one of the nation's most prestigious schools: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Carl Dietrich, a 28-year-old inventor won the school's $30,000, distinguished Lemelson-MIT Student Prize last year, has come as closer to any other inventor to replicating The Jetsons experience for all of us. Although it's less "flying car" than "personal air vehicle," it's still generating a lot of excitement.

With the help of his prize money, Dietrich founded Terrafugia, the aeronautical start-up company responsible for this latest innovation. Dietrich said he was inspired by the congested highways and airports of America, and his childhood love of aeronautics.

Flying Cars: Not Just a Dream AnymoreCalled the Transition®, the SUV-sized vehicle has innovative, folding wings that collapse with the push of a button. It can be driven on any surface road, and requires a sport pilot license to fly. It can carry two people with their bags up to 500 miles on a single tank of premium unleaded gasoline.

Preliminary specifications list the aircraft at 19 feet long, 80 inches wide (with wings folded) and a 27-foot wingspan. While this is compact for an aircraft, it's still not going to fit in your garage! A 100-horsepower engine runs on unleaded gasoline and will allow the aircraft to cruise at 115 mph.

The Transition will rely on the nation's thousands of underutilized public-access airports (chances are you live within 20 miles of one) to provide a practical transportation alternative to travelers whose trips range between 100 and 500 miles.

Dietrich has patents pending for the Transition's overall configuration, deformable aerodynamic bumpers, embedded lights and license plate holder, and an RFID system for rapid access to local airports. Still, there are challenges. Dietrich and his company still must develop a drivetrain to propel the aircraft and iron out a few more kinks in the design.

The main problem that inventors have faced while trying to build the flying car is creating a vehicle light enough to fly but hearty enough to handle the rigors of the road. Major advancements in metal alloys and composite materials have solved many of these problems, so much so that Terrafugia is not the only company working on a flying car. Competition from Urban Aeronautics, Aerocar and Moller International is keeping Terrafugia on its toes.

That doesn't bother Dietrich. "There are lots of smart people with lots of resources working on these problems, certainly," he said in an MIT press release. "Still, I think there is a role that can be played by us independent inventor types who are trying to think up other unique ways of working on them. It never hurts to have a couple more people thinking about big problems."

We at InventHelp® couldn't have said it better than Carl Dietrich. Most great innovations are a collaborative effort, particularly when you're dealing with large-scale problems. InventHelp is looking forward to watching the story of the flying car play out. Think about it – maybe one day in the near future, we can say we remember when cars were grounded!


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