Saw this on another board. Pretty slick.

I want one. Did you see the cool pusher prop fold up.
I suppose since this is around April 1st. I won't be ordering one soon.
But, the Dutch women look pretty good on a nude beach.

Saw the PAL-V on a motorcycle blog today, though it's actually more of a flying motorcycle (which is has to be to get around safety regs).

There are some other cool flying car / bike videos there too.

http://www.ridexperience.com/2012/04/the-pal-v-one-the-flying-car-that%E2%80%99s-a-motorcycle/

IMHO, unlike a hundred other flying car ideas that are nonsense, unlikely, or based on some deus ex machina technology that doesn't exist... I believe this one actually has a good chance of working. If their engineers figured out how to stow the rotors, and unfold them into a safe flight configuration, the rest is very do-able using current technology.

That scissor-folding prop is for real, the Stemme motorglider haqs safely and reliably used it... and on the Stemme it even gets covered by a nose cone when not being used.

crowned wrote:Saw the PAL-V on a motorcycle blog today, though it's actually more of a flying motorcycle (which is has to be to get around safety regs).

There are some other cool flying car / bike videos there too.

http://www.ridexperience.com/2012/04/the-pal-v-one-the-flying-car-that%E2%80%99s-a-motorcycle/

Is this thing a gyro copter. I'm not sure I like that. AOPA had this poseted in the ebrife today http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/Fi ... 456-1.html better of worse than the PAL-V.

IMHO the PAL-V seems a lot like the ICON but for dry land. I'd personally like to have the ICON over the PAL-V. But then again I prefer a fixed wing. Just my two cents. Any thoughts?

A gyrocopter is a much more do-able and far less mechanically complicated solution for the flying car problem than an accordion-wing airplane. The rotor is unpowered, eliminating power transmission. The flight controls are more compact and simpler. There is far less actual lifting surface required for rotors than wings. Spars and airfoils are smaller. No control surfaces needed on the rotor, versus ailerons and flaps on a wing. The sliding tailboom idea seems very workable, very little mechanical complexity. The gyro provides a much shorter runway requirement. Gyrocopters are not ideal solutions for several other requirements, but the flying car/motorcycle may be one where the gyro works best. Hat's off to their effort but the Terrafugia seems like a much less robust and much more complex solution. The other vehicle that uses a "powered parachute" configuration is interesting, but less compact. It also probabbly cannot operate out of as short of a runway as a gyro with a pre-rotator.

All this is my opinion as an amateur wannabee "pencil and paper" designer ... any gen-u-wine aero engineers on this board can feel free to correct me as appropriate if I missed something.

Similar in concept to Butterfly, LLC's super sky cycle
http://www.thebutterflyllc.com/sscycle/sscycle.htm

The Dutch one look a bit more expensive