Flying Car

A British inventor has finally proven that the dream of a flying car really isn't as elusive as some would like to think, and you don't need millions and millions of cash to do it either.

He's basically taken an off-road racing buggy, stuck in a superbike engineer, strapped on a parachute and a jolly great big fan and in essence created a road legal microlight that you can use to pop down to the shops, and fly across the channel without too much effort. To quote The Times article:

The driver unpacks the parafoil wing from the boot and manually deploys it from the rear of the car. He switches the transmission from road mode, which drives the wheels, to flight mode, which powers the rear fan

The fan’s thrust pushes the car forward, providing lift for the wing as the car reaches 35mph – takeoff speed. Once airborne, pedals in the footwell steer the Skycar by pulling cables that change the wing’s shape

The Skycar has a flying range of about 180 miles. If the wing is damaged or collapses, the pilot can fire a roof-mounted emergency parachute that allows the car to float safely back to earth.

Now isn't that easy. Popping across to France really would be quick and easy.

The inventor going to put his Skycar through a tough maiden voyage by taking a trip from London to the back-of-beyond: Timbuktu (yes, it really does exist).

If all goes well, the company behind this will put the Skycar it into limited production with a price of somewhere between £35,000 and £40,000 for a standard model and £60,000 for a high-performance sports version. So you too can have one, and best of all you don't need an actual pilot's license - just one day’s tuition and a powered parachute license.