They have finished the jams!

2001/01/14 Kortabarria Olabarria, Beñardo - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Garraioak
• Industria
• Ekologia

When in the first hour of the morning the radio is lit and the state of traffic is being communicated during the traffic jam, what rage do we take? For it is finished forever. From now on, enter the ditch, press a button and air! We will fly directly home above all previous cars.

Do you remember, reader, Blade Runner or Fifth element the images that appeared in the movies? In the cities of the future all cars fly at different heights from one side to the other, without obstacles.

So don't think we're then talking about a future so far away. The Californian engineer Moller develops a vehicle called M400 Skycar (car of the skies). The Skycar is shaped like a car. In fact, it has approximate dimensions of a normal car and is authorized to travel on any road. But this car that has the shape of Batmobil has another curious peculiarity... that flies.

The skycar is 6 meters long, 3 meters wide and 4 people can travel comfortably. The M400 Skycar has a vertical take-off and landing system similar to that of the Harrier aircraft, acting in flight as any other jet propulsion aircraft. It only needs a field of 10 meters in diameter to take off and when flying it can reach a speed of 500 km/h at 3.000 meters of altitude.

Not only that. The M400 can use any conventional fuel (gasoline, diesel, gas...). Its consumption is very low, 8 liters per kilometer and can travel 1,500 kilometers without having to fill the fuel tank.

Engineer Moller began in 1963 to develop vertical takeoff vehicles. He was an engineering professor at the University of California, and although his first prototype was called XM-12 flying, he was very unstable in the air.

In 1985 he bought from an Illinois company dedicated to the manufacture of off-lime engines the Wankel type rotary engine technology. In conventional internal combustion engines, the pistons go back and advance inside the cylinder. In the rotary engines, on the contrary, the triangular rotor rotates in the combustion chamber and the rotor rotates throughout the entire tour, giving three laps to the entire four-stroke combustion process. These engines have a very good relationship between power and weight and are highly reliable when having few components in motion. Four years later, in 1989, he built the M200X vehicle. It had a circular shape and capacity for two people. It took off vertically, remained stable at 20 meters and had capacity to land again, but did not fly longer.

The M400 Skycar that is now developing has four engines, two front and two rear. Each motor drives a fan and the generated wind passes through some mobile plates. These plates can move and depending on the position of the plates the wind generated by the fans is diverted downwards or backwards. Thus, when taking off, the four fans emit the wind downwards and when they are in the air they pull it backwards. The computer controls the strength of each fan and the position of the plates, which allows to control the direction of the vehicle. The M400 has no FLAP or any complex mechanical articulation.

Driving the Skycar will be very simple. The M400 will have two manual controls. With the left hand the pilot will control the altitude and with the right will control the speed and direction

At the moment wind tunnel testing is underway, but the M400 Skycar will be ready for 2003. According to Moller, although the first models will be around $400,000 (80 million ptas., 3 million pounds), by increasing production, the price of each of them will decrease to 50,000 dollars (10 million ptas., 400 thousand pounds). More expensive than the normal car, but cheaper than the luxury car. Moller International has already received more than 100 applications.

The biggest problem of Skycar is the lack of regulation of air traffic suitable for this type of vehicles. In fact, currently the air space is military competition and has strict regulations. For the moment, the Skycar is subject to the rules that must follow any other approved aircraft. Take off at authorized airports, follow the route chosen for the flight and, of course, the pilot must be allowed to drive conventional aircraft.

However, in the United States, a system is being developed that automatically conducts smaller aircraft. Using the GPS satellite system, the central computer will control the position of the aircraft and will be a system to improve the management of airspace. In this way, airports without radar or control tower can also be used by reducing air traffic in larger airports. These changes are not, of course, changes directed at Skycar, but will be impossible for your future.

In 1940 he was advanced by Henry Ford: "Listen well: the combination of the plane and the car arrives. Perhaps the previous one has made you smile, but it comes." It did not work, no, a great American error.

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