Aug 192011
 

Heh.

Low-flying car: Russian ex-pilot builds working prototype… but it can only get 10ft off the ground

It becomes airborne at 60 miles per hour but has a maximum height of just 10 feet and can fly a distance of only 600 feet.

The Russian inventor from the city of Kaluga, 93 miles south West of Moscow, modified a 1987 ZAZ Tavria car by replacing the doors and bonnet with lighter materials and then adding wings.

[youtube S7sw5S9d9C4]

It appears that the actual purpose of the car is to give trainee pilots practice in takeoffs and landings. I’m a little uncertain that this would be the best simulator for that sort of thing, but as it’s currently built, that’s pretty much all it’d be good for.

Oh, and mandatory:

[youtube vzm6pvHPSGo]


 Posted by at 2:07 pm

  5 Responses to “Where’s my flying car? Oh, there it is…”

  1. I’d like to have the car, but I’d like to have a boat version of it. A cheap WIG, I guess.

  2. If it can only go ten feet up, it’s obviously a WIG… which would be fine over water, but if you are flying it over ground (and don’t run into a tree) and pass over a hole or bump in the ground… what happens then, particularly if it only passes under one side? You sideslip at an angle till one wingtip hits the ground?

    • > it’s obviously a WIG

      Seems to be a WIG *glider.* Run it up to takeoff speed with the car engine driving the wheel, then pull back on the stick and up you go. A few hundred feet later… down you come.

      • Oh, nothing could go wrong with that idea… especially in a side wind. 😉
        (I’d still love to have seen a Triebflügel or Convair Pogo pilot try a landing in windy conditions.)

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