Flying Cars Get Boost From Military

November 24, 2008 —It would be more than convenient. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) believes a flying car would be perfect for military scouting and personnel transport missions. That’s why the central research and development office for the U.S. Department of Defense is looking for companies to build such a vehicle as part of a Small Business Innovation Research proposal. According to a Wired blog, the DARPA hopes its "Personal Air Vehicle Technology" project, announced earlier this month, will ultimately lead to a working prototype of a military-suitable flying car - a two- or four-passenger vehicle that can drive on roads one minute and take off like a helicopter the next. According to DARPA’s solicitation for proposals, the vehicle should be able to fly up to 150 mph for two hours on one tank of fuel, and also safely travel on roads up to 60 mph. It must be no wider than 8.5 feet and no longer than 24 feet, and no higher than 7 feet when in the road configuration. Vehicle control must support manually driving the vehicle on the ground and fully automated flight with manual flight control inputs that can override the fully automatic system. “The challenge is to define the major components of such a vehicle that would be suitable for military scouting and personnel transport missions, yet are small enough, inexpensive enough, and easy enough to operate that it can be widely used,” the specifications state. To achieve this it will be necessary to explore new and innovative technologies in propulsion, morphing wings and flight control, DARPA states.

Private companies like Moller International have been trying to build a flying car for decades. Their latest version is the M-400. Photo credit: Moller International Terrafugia is another company working on a flying car. The Transition® Proof of Concept with wings extended sits on the ramp at Lawrence Municipal Airport in North Andover, Massachusetts. Photo credit: Terrafugia.

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