Dutch firm ready to give wings to ‘flying car’ dream

FROM The Jetsons to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, flying cars have long captured the imagination.

While several futuristic projects are under way in various countries, a Dutch design may be the first one sold and soaring into the skies.

After years of testing, the PAL-V company is poised to start production on a three-wheeled gyrocopter-type vehicle which can carry two people and will be certified for use on roads and in the skies.

“This kind of dream has been around for 100 years,” chief marketing officer Markus Hess said.

“When the first airplane was invented people already thought ‘how can I make that driveable on the road?’.”

The firm, based in Raamsdonksveer in the Netherlands, is aiming to deliver its first flying car to its first customer by the end of next year.

The lucky owner will need a driver’s licence and a pilot’s licence.

But with the keys in hand, the owner will be able to drive to an airfield for the short take-off, and after landing elsewhere drive to the destination in a door-to-door experience.

Different versions of a flying car are being developed in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Japan, China and the United States.

But final assembly on the PAL-V will start in October, with the company seeking to be the first to go into commercial production.

The PAL-V uses normal unleaded petrol for its two 74kW engines, and can fly 400-500km at an altitude of up to 3 500m. On the road, it has a top speed of about 170km/h.

PAL-V was founded in 2007 by Robert Dingemanse and pilot John Bakker.

“In the beginning it was, ‘let’s make a gyrocopter driveable’,” Hess said. But they realised the weight and length of a gyrocopter’s blades gave the vehicle a high centre of gravity when driving, especially taking corners.

They have designed the car so that at the flick of a button the blades fold down and gather like a bat’s wings on the top.

The company insists the PAL-V is not a helicopter, in which the blades are powered by an engine.

It is a gyroplane, in which the blades rotate thanks to airflow.

Even if both engines cut out, the blades will still turn, so “even if you go at zero speed it still keeps rotating and you are not going to drop out of the sky”.

“In some senses we are selling a dream,” Hess said, standing next to the sleek, black first model developed in 2012 which has already put in substantial flying and driving hours.