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  1. Default PAL-V One - Flying Car / Trike / Helicopter launched


    The Dutch company PAL-V launched their first flying car / trike / helicopter, the PAL-V One.

    Just amazing, they combined the epic Carver with a folding helicopter!

    MUST...HAVE...ONE!!!

    2012 - PAL-V One:



    2003 - Carver:




    Website: http://www.pal-v.com

  2. Default Re: PAL-V One - Flying Car / Trike / Helicopter launched


    That is one cruel April Fool joke. Toonami one was worse.
    Last edited by Locked; 2012-04-02 at 10:52 AM. Reason: or just a bad day to promote.

  3. Default Re: PAL-V One - Flying Car / Trike / Helicopter launched


    Looks serious. Looks like it could do with some dampening of the vibrations in the vehicle body, or we'll expect people to start puking over the instruments.

    Otherwise, yes. Impressive to me. Would like to know the cost in 5 years' time. *prus one*

    Hadriel
    [btw, I have a license but I don't drive =.="]

  4. Default Re: PAL-V One - Flying Car / Trike / Helicopter launched


    Ehhh that's not exactly what I had in mind when I think of the term "flying car", but I suppose it is in fact flying.

  5. Default Re: PAL-V One - Flying Car / Trike / Helicopter launched


    ^ Yeah. It works as another recreational vehicle, but it definitely ain't going to replace plain old road cars as a major system of transportation.

    For that we will need monopoles. So peeps, get studying.

  6. Default Re: PAL-V One - Flying Car / Trike / Helicopter launched


    It's not an April fool joke, it's actually real.

    Mass production will start in 2014, price will be around $200.000,- at launch which is extremely cheap for a chopper + car that can drive on the road. Prices will most likely go down in the years after that! :D

    Speed is about 180km/hour (110m/hour) both on road and air and can carry two people.

    You don't need a chopper license, only a small private air license.

    It's just great! :D

  7. Default Re: PAL-V One - Flying Car / Trike / Helicopter launched


    Just what the world needs: drunks airborne.

  8. GLADIGATORS
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    Default Re: PAL-V One - Flying Car / Trike / Helicopter launched


    Drunk flying is easily remedied by a breathalyzer that must be used before ignition and prevents it if anything other than .00 comes up.

    Or drunk driving for that matter.

  9. Default Re: PAL-V One - Flying Car / Trike / Helicopter launched


    There's more space to drunkenly dodge people in the air, too!

  10. Default Re: PAL-V One - Flying Car / Trike / Helicopter launched


    Drunken driver/pilots => Death drops from the sky...

    Hadriel

  11. Default Re: PAL-V One - Flying Car / Trike / Helicopter launched


    Yep, never done before, oh wait:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autogir..._America_AC-35

    Same reasons why this will fail still persist:
    1) Need extra license (those aren't cheap).
    2) Too dangerous for it to be common as a car (thought road crashes were bad? now take them to air).
    3) And the worst, you still need to drive to an airport (and you even have to get out of the car to help it change to flight mode).

    Really hope its an April Fool's day prank.

  12. GLADIGATORS
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    Default Re: PAL-V One - Flying Car / Trike / Helicopter launched


    1) Well neither is the PAL in the first place. Clearly if you have upwards of 200 grand to drop on something like this an extra license will be no big deal.
    2) This one is obvious, there's a lot more harm to be done with these even if EXTREME safety measures are taken.
    3) So? I mean the mode changes can probably be made automatic, but why would driving to the airport be a huge downside? At least if you have one of these you hopefully won't have to worry as much about the ridiculous limitations that the airports give you.

    Also that design is terribad. It totally isn't as fast as this one claims to be either.

  13. Default Re: PAL-V One - Flying Car / Trike / Helicopter launched


    Theres still a bunch of limitations on that type of airports, first being they aren't as common as you would like them to be, plus if I'm not wrong you have to pay each time you use it and I bet a whole bunch of other stuff.

    Only people I can see buying this are kinda rich showoffs, since a bit lower and they only have for any of the other more tested options that are cheaper, and a bit more they are able to buy luxury airplanes (or at least pay a pilot) and both the one with less and the one with more can be driven/drive in a fancy car instead of driving something that I bet is not very comfortable.

  14. Donator Straight Male
    IGN: ShinkuDragon HoukaPhoenix BoshokuRaven
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    panama

    Default Re: PAL-V One - Flying Car / Trike / Helicopter launched


    in order:
    1) that's correct.
    2) this doesn't really apply, there's rules to flying to prevent most, if not all, crashes, how many times have you heard of people with a small plane for personal use crash?
    3) technically, you don't, you can have a grass strip in your backyard, then again, (it has to be a somewhat big yard) but from the video it didn't look like it needed much running to take off with it.

    main problems with it is the cost of "getting it to fly"

    edit: what i'm most interested on hearing though, is WHY it doesn't spin sideways, like helicopters without a tail.

  15. Default Re: PAL-V One - Flying Car / Trike / Helicopter launched


    That plane-car can't reach 180km/h (110m/h) safely and steer trough corners on a highway, this one can. It really has an advanced road-steering system.

    Also:
    1. The license is only about +/- 20~30 extra hours if you already have a driving license.
    2. There will be strict guidelines where and how to fly, otherwise you won't get your license or will loose it again in a jiffy. ;)
    3. You don't need to drive to an airport with this thing. Maybe in The Netherlands, which is the most densely populated country in the western world, but it only needs 160 meters to take off, so an empty road somewhere in the USA will do fine. :)

    And again, no it's not an April Fool's prank, it was on Dutch television with the designers / investors and the test pilot. It's real! :)

  16. Default Re: PAL-V One - Flying Car / Trike / Helicopter launched


    And why would you want to go at that speed? Showoff is the only thing that I can think of.

    1.
    2. There are strict guidelines for where and how to drive, people still get kill by cars everyday.
    3.
    Even if its real its pretty stupid, $200.000 (althought the other price I've been seeing ($75k) is more in the budget of more people but more people with this thing... I don't think its a good idea) is a bit too much for something that is neither a high performance car nor a plane and it wont get many people buying it aside from showoff rich guys (and morons with a couple of mortages on their house).

    So in resume:
    Fun expensive toy: Yes.
    Something useful: Not much.

  17. Donator Straight Male
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    Default Re: PAL-V One - Flying Car / Trike / Helicopter launched


    just pointing out, those requirements aren't just to fly the PAL-V, they're to fly ANYTHING. problem comes in the cost of 6 grand on top of the cost of the Pal-V (EEUU only asks you for a third class medical, but whatever)

    his comment wasn't only about the speed, was about the "car" being safe, as in, it won't topside if you try turning at 100KM/H

    nowhere near as many people die from flying as people die from driving, but i guess the main reason for that is that the air has a LOT more space, and a LOT less people on it.

    this is the kind of things that would really get worse if too many people did it, but what keeps most of them from doing this (or buying a plane) is the same thing, it's pretty freaking expensive.
    pretty sure the PAL-V will have to go through the same regulations that most planes do regarding check ups to keep it worthy of flying, and that's expensive too ~_~

  18. Default Re: PAL-V One - Flying Car / Trike / Helicopter launched


    Side note, the govts. will need to have predefined take-off and landing zones, before the chopper blades... well... chop things up.

    Hadriel

  19. Orbital Bee Cannon
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    Default Re: PAL-V One - Flying Car / Trike / Helicopter launched


    As long as it requires a strip to take off and land, it can't be used for the most pressing need for a flying car: circumventing traffic jams.
    If it were a proper chopper it could land on the roofs of many buildings in big cities (given permits and whatever), but as it is, it can't take you to work and back.

    It also can't take you on vacation, because apparently it has barely enough room for one person, and no significant luggage. I suppose if they develop a "family model" that can carry 5 people + luggage like an ordinary sedan, and carry them in relative comfort (small planes are baaaad for people with motion sickness) a distance that makes the extra cost worth it...

    Anyway, the proof of concept is nice, but as we've seen above, "pocket helicopters" have been proposed before.
    I'm waiting to see the mass-production model.

  20. Default Re: PAL-V One - Flying Car / Trike / Helicopter launched


    Fuel costs should also be outrageous. Flying gurgles a lot of gas.

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