Lilium Jet is the flying personal transport of the future. Flying cars: features, problems, developments Watch micro individual transport flying

Sci-fi works and films often tell us that in the future, humanity will abandon wheeled vehicles and move to flying cars. But time passes, and only airplanes and helicopters cut through the air. So when will flying cars appear?

Features of this type of transport

Ideally, a flying car is compact and does not need special conditions for takeoff. That is, it can simply be stored in the garage and take off directly from there. But the most important thing is that this type of transport should be accessible to the middle class of the population.

As a rule, most of the concept cars of the future imply the ability to move both by air and by land. Control of a flying car should be extremely simple and intuitive.

Do not forget that we are talking about the technologies of the future when they should appear new types of fuel and energy... Therefore, refueling or recharging a flying car should not cost a pretty penny. And the level of environmental pollution in such a car should be minimized.

Modern developments in the direction of "road-air" transport are carried out taking into account the listed data, however, the stake is mainly placed on the fact that the car can at least rise into the air ...

Existing models

Formally, flying machines already exist as experimental models. We have selected the three most promising prototypes out of dozens of prototypes.

Terrafugia TF-X

Manufacturers position their creation as the first in the world semi-autonomous hybrid flying car, and it is in many ways consistent with this formulation.

The advantage of this car is its vertical takeoff capability. Movement is possible both by air and by land. By the way, it can accommodate as many as four passengers.

The semi-automatic system reacts to obstacles and bad weather, independently lands in emergency situations, notifying air traffic controllers about its action. In addition, the TF-X is equipped with a parachute system.

Takeoff and landing will not require special skills from the driver (pilot?) - the autopilot will be responsible for this... And the entire flight is mainly carried out under computer control, and the user only needs to set the destination. The system will calculate whether there is enough fuel and charge for the flight, analyze the features of the relief and weather conditions.

Interestingly, the propellers that lift the car into the air are powered by electric motors, while the propeller, which propels forward, is driven by a gas turbine. Thus, without recharging and refueling, the TF-X will be able to cover more than 800 km.

Now developers are working to address issues such as improving vehicle safety and simplifying handling.

So far, the estimated cost of Terrafugia TF-X is close to the amount of 300 thousand dollars, but the manufacturers promise that after a while it will be available for the price of a premium car.

Already in 2017, the Slovak company AeroMobil is preparing to sell flying cars of its own production.

This vehicle is adapted for comfortable driving and flying. Immediately before takeoff, the wings of the Aeromobile "spread" on the sides. There can be no talk of taking off directly from the highway so far - for this you will have to use the runway of the nearest airfield... Accordingly, one cannot do without a pilot's license.

The cabin is designed for 2 people. Regular gasoline is used as fuel.

To improve flight performance, the body of this car is made of specially selected composite materials. In the air, AeroMobil can accelerate to 200 km / h and cover about 700 km. In the future, it will be equipped with an autopilot.

Manufacturers say that the cost of an airplane car will be at the level of a sports car and a light airplane.

And this flying car can be purchased today... The two-seater Transition can transform from a ground vehicle to an air vehicle in less than a minute.

The speed that a car reaches in flight can be 185 km / h, while the flight range is 790 km. Gasoline is used as fuel.

However, for a safe take-off, a flat 500-meter runway is required.

Terrafugia Transition is also certified for road transport common use, and as a "light sports aircraft".

The cost of this flying car is $ 280,000.

1946 flying car

The idea of ​​flying cars is by no means new. Already in the middle of the 20th century, engineers were seriously thinking about developing such a vehicle. Moreover, a model was created that corresponds to the idea of ​​a flying car. Although it was rather an airplane that transformed into a ground vehicle.

It's about, and it really deserves attention. The development of Amphibian was taken up by Robert Fulton in 1946. And in general, he managed to adapt the plane to the road.

This flying car has become first to receive certification from the United States Civil Aviation Authority.
To transform the car into an airplane, it was necessary to fasten the wings and tail, the propeller was attached to the fuselage.

The Hyperloop project of the creator of PayPal and Tesla Motors Elon Musk is turning from a futuristic concept into a very promising business. It involves the creation of trains that can travel faster than most modern aircraft. Today it became known that Oerlikon Leybold Vacuum, owned by Viktor Vekselberg, became Musk's partner in this business. Interest in the project has already been shown in the United Arab Emirates and in China. Secret has selected several more projects that can become the transport of the future and bring in billions.

Hyperloop vacuum trains

In August 2013, Elon Musk presented the concept of the bullet transport of the future - the vacuum train and the Hyperloop highway. Inside the steel pipe, transport capsules will move on air cushions, each accommodating up to 28 people. The speed roughly corresponds to the speed of sound in the air - 1200 km / h.

The pipe will be supported by columns, and electricity will be provided by solar panels installed across the entire area of ​​the airway. Musk says it requires 21 megawatts to operate, and the panels can generate 57 megawatts on a sunny day. Thus, if capsules are sent from the station every half a minute, 7.4 million people a year can get from San Francisco to Los Angeles (600 km) in less than half an hour. According to Musk's calculations, the project will pay off in 20 years, provided that a one-way ticket costs no more than $ 20.

Hyperloop is an alternative to the high-speed rail project that the US authorities are building between San Francisco and Los Angeles. It is planned to spend about $ 70 billion on the project. Musk is sure that his concept requires only $ 7.5 billion. True, he admitted that he was not yet ready to take on Hyperloop - all his time was taken by SpaceX and Tesla. Musk hopes that someone else will take up the project, and he, in turn, promises all kinds of support, including financial.

Bus system 3D Express Coach

In 2010 year Chinese company Shenzhen Huashi Future Parking Equipment unveiled 3D Express Coach Bus Project. Although it looks a little like a traditional bus: according to the developers' plan, it should move parallel to and above the movement of public transport. To do this, the roads need to be equipped with something like a monorail on the sides. The width of the bus is designed to cover two car lanes.

Passenger seats are located on the second level; special platforms must be built for their embarkation and disembarkation. When emergency situation they can leave the bus using an inflatable ramp. 3D Express Coach is designed for 1,200 - 1,400 people - according to the creators, it can replace about 40 ordinary city buses, and its appearance will reduce the number of traffic jams by 30%.

For movement, the bus can use the energy of solar panels installed on its roof. In this case, the fuel economy would be 860 tons per year, and the volume harmful emissions would decrease by 2,640 tons per year.

The cost of building an experimental road with a length of 40 km was estimated at $ 73 million.

The project was supposed to begin in 2010 in Beijing, but the local authorities later abandoned this idea. The authorities of Shijiazhuang City District and Wuhu City have shown interest in the two-level transport. At what stage the projects are now is unknown. Also in 2013, the authorities of the Brazilian city of Manaus signed an agreement with the developers of the bus to build such a road system.

E-Volo multicopters

In 2011, three German engineers developed a prototype for the first 16-rotor manned multicopter. The total weight of the structure is 80 kg. Basically, a multicopter is two crossed 5-meter aluminum beams to which the pilot's seat is attached. The chair rests on a large orthopedic ball - it should soften the landing. The aircraft is controlled by one joystick.

The main advantages of the E-Volo are safety and an affordable price. The aircraft will be able to stay in the air even if several propellers fail. If they all fail, the parachute system will work, which will deliver the pilot and the device to the ground. According to the creators, the cost of a multicopter will be determined by the size and carrying capacity, but the initial price for the simplest configuration is $ 1,000. While the prototype can be in the air for no more than 20 minutes, because the E-Volo is powered by electricity, but the creators promise to increase the flight time to one hour. Speed ​​- up to 60 km / h.

In 2013, E-Volo engineers decided to make a full-fledged helicopter with 18 propellers based on the multicopter, its test tests were successful. Now E-Volo is trying to start mass production of multicopters.

Travolators from NBBJ

A few days ago, the architectural firm NBBJ presented the concept of unloading the ring line of the London Underground. It is based on a network of travelators moving at different speeds of stepless paths.

NBBJ proposes to arrange three travolators in a row in metro tunnels. One of them will move at a speed of 44 km / h, the middle one - a little slower, and one more - at the speed of a human step, so that it is convenient for passengers to enter it from platforms. According to the developers, this is a "healthy and enjoyable" alternative to the metro.

At the same time, passengers can ride on travolators while standing or walk along them, thereby increasing the speed of their movement.

The amount required to implement the project and the reaction of the London authorities are still unknown.

Suborbital spacecraft Space Ship Two

Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic is set to begin testing a second suborbital tourist spacecraft, Space Ship Two, this year.

The miracle did not happen, as at the beginning of the third millennium, when we, according to Ray Bradbury, were supposed to colonize Mars. They often talk about the prophecies of science fiction, but one should not forget about unsuccessful forecasts - catastrophically beautiful, but still failures.

Where are the flying cars?

There is a technique under this name, but in reality it is only a hybrid of a car with an airplane. And though the latest designs look futuristic, they are very, very expensive and bear little resemblance to the anti-gravity transport in the "Fifth Element". Farther away from him other developments similar in design to a helicopter, or at all equipped with a parachute and a rear propeller... Here another fantasy comes to mind rather - Carlson, who lives on the roof. Charming, but there is no smell of innovation here.

In films and computer games, another version of the individual transport flashed - a jetpack. He has been featured in Star Wars and Robocop, for example. But even here it did not come to mass use, and it is unlikely that it will soon reach - there is only enough fuel for half a minute of flight, and these volumes cost a round sum.

We ourselves, apparently, do not expect miracles so much that we rejoice even at such a creation of the Chinese innovative genius as the "portal bus". But it is real, like the monorail in Moscow or Japanese train with speeds up to 603 km / h.

And yet, for the human imagination, boundaries are unacceptable. Science fiction of the past, and just the fantasies of our ancestors about the future have acquired a special charm and a new name - "retrofuturism". A romantic, enthusiastic love for technology and a desire to anticipate future discoveries - this can both touch and inspire today.

Reinvent the wheel

Even before the car wanted to "lift in the air", there were ideas to improve it. And the most important thing is to reinvent the wheel in a new way! A Japanese magazine in 1936 introduced a concept car with balls instead of regular tires: according to the authors, this idea would provide a smooth ride for the transport. Not such a pointless idea, even according to modern engineers. In 2016, a similar development presented by the American company Goodyear, the largest tire manufacturer.

Gigantomania gave birth to another imaginary miracle of technology - a ship on huge wheels, which, according to the inventor, was supposed to plow the sands of the Sahara and solve the problem with transport in the region. Struggle against samums and other disasters of the deserts, including heat, was foreseen by the design, and the engineer promised "a trip that will turn into a pleasant journey through those places where thousands of generations fought in vain with natural forces and died in an unequal struggle." So the magazine "Vokrug Sveta" wrote about it in 1927. It is not known how successful the idea was - it still did not come to implementation. Although it can be assumed that the promised air conditioning of such a machine, and even to overcome the sands with cogwheels, would take a lot of resources.

For public use, however, just compact models... In 1947, engineer Eduard Vereiken from Brussels patented a dicycling, a self-propelled carriage that consisted of two huge wheels and an open cabin in the middle. The inventor himself claimed that transport can accelerate to 185 km / h - but it's hard to believe in it. And the safety of passengers remains in question. Only in the Swedish analogue of 1999, by Jonas Bjerkholtz, all design problems were taken into account. But use it now just for the entertainment of the public.

Trains were another favorite theme for engineers and dreamers. Many hopes were pinned on monorails, although they were presented in a rather unusual way - for example, this way or this way. But ordinary trains were seen as much more advanced in the future - comfortable, spacious, and even with a view of the stars.

"Ship of the Desert" according to the 1927 version.

A helicopter for each person!

Where fantasy unfolds to its fullest - it is a flying vehicle. The imagination of our ancestors gave birth to saucer-like planes, and planes with wings below and turbo engines in the bow, and even submarine planes. Not to mention everything - you can also browse the galleries on Reddit or keyword collections on Pinterest yourself.

But what is especially touching in all these projects is the belief in the general availability of transport of the future. A man has just conquered the air, and American magazines write: "Helicopters for Everybody!" ("Helicopters to every home!"). And among all these press clippings almost a century ago, you can see drawings of private planes. At that time, they really expected from the future only striving upward, and scientific progress, and the quality of life of everyone.

Do you believe in it now, when you stand in a traffic jam during rush hour? Or when you are shaking on the top bunk of a reserved seat carriage? Clutching a smartphone in your hand, the computing power of which is known to be higher than NASA equipment in 1969?

The 21st century has not yet taken place - it certainly did not take place the way fans of technical progress expected it. But the future, as it turned out, is unpredictable. At a slow pace, but it comes - we suggest you get acquainted with the futuristic transport of the present.

Today's future

Segway has become one of the most fashionable forms of personal transport in recent years, a technological competitor for bicycles and scooters. What is its futurism? You will have to "steer" exclusively with your body: the gyroscope and other sensors in its device react to tilt. And only you will have to turn it with a handle or a special column. The control of a gyro scooter and a unicycle is completely intuitive - I must say, it is these varieties that are popular today.

In Naberezhnye Chelny and Moscow, even the police use segway. In many cities, rental offices have appeared where you can temporarily become the owner of a two-wheeled "self-propelled carriage" or unicycle. On the market, a unicycle can cost up to half a million rubles, but for 20-30 thousand it is quite possible to buy a unicycle that can withstand 15 kilometers without recharging.

Another representative of modern electric transport is the electric car. Having been invented even earlier than the usual fuel-fueled cars, it still remains a symbol of the future. There are many reasons for this: resource saving, environmental friendliness, and independence from the oil market conditions. Today it is easiest to ride an electric car, especially for residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg: just contact a taxi service, which has such models in its fleet. In Yandex.Taxi, for example, not so long ago appeared one of the most advanced electric cars, Tesla Model S. Its capabilities are impressive: in just a few seconds, it is able to accelerate to 100 km / h, while the course is practically silent.

The most innovative transport known to Russians is, of course, the Moscow monorail, the “thirteenth metro line”. It began to function in full measure back in 2008, but even now not all residents of the regions have heard of it. As if descended from the same retro-futuristic clippings from magazines, but adapted to reality, the monorail is the favorite of the public. The location of the road amazes the imagination - this is an overpass, that is, the train path completely passes over Moscow. The route runs from the Timiryazevskaya station to Sergei Eisenstein Street. True, recently there have been talks about dismantling the track, although the last word is still the proposal to make it a "tourist object". Payback, as it turned out, was a serious problem for this pilot road.

Like this, overcoming difficulties modern device world, the future is still slowly approaching. Will levitating cars and a teleportation booth in every yard await us in the coming decades? Unlikely. Will the transport of the future be similar to what we can imagine? Also unlikely. And it’s not that bad.

Probably everyone imagines a future with flying vehicles, but no one knows when such a future will come. But according to some reports, by 2031, everyone will have their own personal aircraft similar to a helicopter. The transport of the future is called Sky Voyage and is a hybrid of a glider and an airship.

Sky Voyage is slated to run on hydrogen and will also have two small gas turbine engine... Aircraft Sky Voyage under the influence of gas will take off vertically, like an airship. With the help of hydrogen fuel cells, the transport of the future Sky Voyage will be able to maneuver in the air.

Sky Voyage is for one person. Designer Jet Shao undertook to translate the idea of ​​creating such an unusual transport of the future into a physical prototype.

Many people think that using airspace will be the solution to reduce traffic congestion in big cities. But is it really so? Maybe just a number Vehicle will increase, and there will be traffic jams not only on the ground, but also in the sky.

They indicate the dynamics, transience of the meaning of these objects, as well as spiritual and karmic influences.

In addition, they can emphasize both the strangeness, the unusualness of the situation (for those objects for which flight is not natural) and interference in the fate of some external, local energies, and also invest their own additional meaning.

For example, flying on a chair indicates professional success.

In general, all flying people (images, characters, animals), flights in a dream of the sleeping person himself reflect the spiritual world of consciousness, the field of free movement, a certain role and achievements of the sleeping person himself (with the exception, of course, of some flying demonic creatures).

Flying in an airplane, in a hot air balloon (especially when you control the aircraft yourself) is always an achievement (with a successful landing).

Dream Interpretation - Transport, land or water

To see the cart - obstacles in business.

Going towards the cart - safely finish the job / something good.

Loaded with something - a surprise.

She got stuck - a disease.

Fell down - danger to the life of an acquaintance or friend.

Pulling it is of little use from work.

To go in a cart - to think about death, enormous difficulties lie ahead.

To see the railway - a certain way is ahead; the way "to yourself" / to be alone.

The locomotive is to feel bad among friends and acquaintances.

By railroad driving is a long way, obstacles and dangers are coming; great danger from love and for love.

To see a strange carriage - success, money.

To go in it - you are not going to your goal by the shortest path, illusions and prejudices prevent you from achieving what you want; some high honor lies ahead.

Riding in a carriage without a horse is parting.

A car is a new business to start.

To get under it is a misfortune.

To go in it - to use connections; useful connections.

Very fast - risk.

Sitting behind the wheel is a danger to life.

Getting into an accident is a favorable turn of circumstances.

Getting in or out of it is a warning about the pursuer.

To fall out - through your own fault, put your life or well-being in great danger.

Riding on an inanimate object - building castles in the air, losing the sense of reality, being a prisoner of abstractions.

To ride in a baby carriage is to become the object of angry chatter.

Good health on a chair for disabled people.

In public - well-being at someone else's expense.

Driving up the wire road is personal happiness.

Down - failure in love.

To ride a bicycle - you should be careful: in your position there is a certain danger / quick rise in life, which, however, will require a lot of effort from you.

To see the sleigh is a pleasure.

To ride them is a success.

To ride a sleigh from the mountains is a quick change of success and failure in life / an opportunity to miss your happiness.

Harbor, port in a dream to see - very good news.

To use a ferry or transport - unexpectedly reach the goal.

To ride a boat without a specific purpose - to be under the strong influence of your subconscious (craving for drugs and alcohol); widowhood.

Riding in a company is a profitable business to get.

Mooring is peace of mind.

To shake off is a chagrin in the family.

To overturn is sadness.

The death of the boat is an accidental death in the house.

In it with specific purpose to go - a kind of compliance in business.

On calm water - success.

By stormy - misfortune, but it can be avoided.

Row - your efforts will lead to the goal, the will overcomes unconscious drives.

To rule it is a great effort without significant success.

The gondola is a kind of love adventure.

The ship, the steamer is a symbol of hope.

What happens to him symbolizes the dreamer himself, the life situation in which he is.

To ride on it, to be on it - a change in relations; road.

Going to distant countries is to console loved ones.

He walks by - saying goodbye to a friend or environment in general.

A ship leaving into the distance - worries and sorrows remain with you, and hopes will float away.

To leave it - to achieve the goal.

He drops an anchor - a kind of embassy to you.

Big to see near the coast - success in business.

Small - small joys.

Shipwreck - tears.

Sailboat - a good change / the image of a desirable woman.

Masts with sails are an unexpectedly easy success.

Without sails, obstacles must be overcome in order to succeed.