Airliners-India.com

karatecatman · Guest

An enterprising Dutchman has come up with the perfect way to beat traffic snarl-ups ---- a flying car with pop-up rotors, says BBC TV.
The PAL-V or Personal Air and Land Vehicle is a three-wheeled gyrocopter which uses foldable rotors. Faced with congestion the driver activates these to provide aerodynamic lift rather like a normal wing. A propeller at the back drives the vehicle forward, powered by the same highly-efficient car engine it uses on the road. The unit can also run on biodiesel and other ‘‘clean’’ fuels.
The PAL-V can take off in short spaces and fly at up to 4,000 feet (1,500 metres). Top speed on land and in the air is given as around 200 kilometres an hour. Inventor John Bakker has been working on the PAL-V project for six years together with the Netherlands aeronautics and space institute NLR. The autogyro principle dates back to 1923 when a Spanish engineer flew the first prototype successfully. According to Robert Dingemanse of PAL-V Europe, the gyrocopter could go into series production in 2010.

Certinaly need this is Chennai where a three-car culture is spreading and driving is becoming unbearable.