Designers rendered images of flying car patents from the last century - Business Insider
"Blade Runner" predicted that in 2019 we'd zoom around Los Angeles in flying cars, but that hasn't quite worked out. Although this forecast hasn't manifested in actual vehicles beyond basic prototypes, there's been no shortage of optimistic inventors eager to throw together their own designs.
Scottish leasing comparison startup LeaseFetcher charged creative studio NeoMam with the task of bringing patent sketches to life with realistic renderings. The patents span from nearly 100 years ago in 1921 to as recently as 2016.
Flying cars no longer seem like the clear vision of the future that they once were. Waymo, Uber,Tesla, and other companies have instead turned their efforts towards self-driving technology, but these renderings offer a look at how people in the past envisioned the future. Scroll to see drawings from patents, and how designers rendered them.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Sunday December 08 2019, @12:47PM (2 children)
Were any of those designs meant seriously, or were they just a means of getting a person's name on a patent? That it work and be practical should be a basic requirement of any patentable device. We have plenty of science fantasy patents, like for various means of FTL travel.
Most of these flying cars leap out as obviously bad and even downright silly designs. If they could work at all, the amount of energy they'd require is prohibitive. They've all gone way too far towards high energy requirements to save a little space, or even just for looks. Oh well, the patent office is only too happy to take money from wannabe inventors. Nice job on the rendering.
(Score: 1) by ze on Sunday December 08 2019, @06:39PM
Well, the flying-cars-will-definitely-be-a-thing era had a lot of overlap with the and-atomic-batteries-for-all era, right?
Tbh, nuclear or antimatter grade mobile power supplies seem like pretty much the biggest missing link in a ton of scifi tech afaict, and I think everyone expected to get that by the time we got to flying cars anyway.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Monday December 09 2019, @12:22AM
>That it work and be practical should be a basic requirement of any patentable device.
I quite agree. And until 1880 a miniature working model that fit within a 1' cube was in fact a requirement to get a U.S. patent
That certainly would have kept software patents at bay...
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Sunday December 08 2019, @01:11PM (3 children)
Unless it is VTO you will need an airfield/airstrip to take off and land. I'm guessing that might not be a problem in rural USA/Australia, but good luck with that in Western Europe where they are few and far between. My nearest is 20 miles away (and I am in rural UK) and then I'll need one somewhere near my destination. If more than a few people have flying cars you are going to exchange traffic on your old land route for a traffic jam heading for the airstrip and then a bottleneck to use it. You are looking at orders of magnitude more road traffic heading there than to an existing major airport.
So create more airstrips? No room, it's very crowded here, and you will never get planning permission anyway. Existing rural airstrips are only tolerated because they have a very low traffic level, both in the air and in the road traffic they create. Someone rich might as well keep a conventional plane at the airstrip and drive there to use it, as now, with a taxi at the other end.
(Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Sunday December 08 2019, @01:56PM
In Japan, there is a government project to provide adequate city infrastructure,
https://ihsmarkit.com/research-analysis/japanese-government-looking-to-support-flying-car-development.html [ihsmarkit.com]
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-01-22/the-birthplace-of-the-walkman-wants-to-be-first-in-flying-cars [bloomberg.com]
while Toyota, Nissan and NEC are already inventing experimental vehicles, for years.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/drones/a28625730/japan-flying-car-prototype-tested/ [popularmechanics.com]
https://www.engadget.com/2017/05/15/toyota-cartivator-skydrive-flying-car/ [engadget.com]
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-39913652 [bbc.com]
https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/japan-flying-cars/index.html [cnn.com]
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2017/06/04/toyota-flying-car/102488300/ [usatoday.com]
Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday December 09 2019, @12:25AM
No, no, see - an *airplane* needs an airfield/airstrip - but a flying car is a car, meaning it's street legal. All you need is a long enough stretch of empty enough road.
At least, that's the fantasy. I'm sure the leap in traffic fatalities would have put a swift end to that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 09 2019, @03:21AM
> Someone rich might as well keep a conventional plane at the airstrip and drive there to use it, as now, with a taxi at the other end.
The rich guy I used to know (long dead) didn't bother with a taxi at the other end, he left Porsche and Ferrari cars at his common destinations (places where his company had a branch).
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 08 2019, @04:42PM (5 children)
The rendering, bloody hell, Is it just me or is it bloody awful and amateurish looking?
I swear I've seen better rendering in the shitty kiddies CGI stuff the sprogs watch..ok, it isn't down to Brazilian or mass-market Indian shit standards, but, again, bloody hell...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 08 2019, @04:57PM
Totally concur. The patent sketches generally look better, and obvious details (airfoil shaped airfoils) have been modelled incorrectly.
The artist impressions of the old popular mechanics days would take a patent sketch and add details, such as turn signals etc., then humanize the scale.
These are bath toy mockups for an early pitch
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 08 2019, @05:44PM (2 children)
It's just you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 08 2019, @08:51PM
I've spotted the NeoMam employee!
Any more new badly modelled/rendered 3D stuff clumsily inserted into fuzzy/blurry washed out 2D backdrops for us to have a gawp at?
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday December 08 2019, @09:04PM
No, it's not just him.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday December 08 2019, @10:55PM
Ey Vato, get Paco and Ramón y las pistolas, those East Side putos be talking shit again guey. Si homes, we gonna bust out a fly-by shooting in the East Side. Mi Ranfla? New 2035 Chevy Impala con air-ride suspension, homie! [businessinsider.com]
(Score: 1) by ze on Sunday December 08 2019, @06:50PM (7 children)
Forget flying or self-driving cars, I want the self-flying bicycle!
Just input your destination in the flight control/nav system and then furiously pedal your glider to your auto-piloted destination ;)
Much lighter and safer for everyone than a big hunk of horsepower, very eco-friendly, no need to be a pilot, no major runway requirements even without vtol capability.
I've looked into some figures, and hang gliders can easily fly in the range of speeds that a bicyclist is able to pedal up a hill, so theoretically one could power just as much altitude gain (as the hill) for the glider IF they could transfer the energy as efficiently into forward momentum.
Unfortunately that's the potentially insurmountable sticking point. AFAICT transferring that power by friction against the ground is far more efficient than with a propeller, and there may not be any possible means of power transfer to free-air momentum efficient enough to make this feasible :(
(Score: 1) by ze on Sunday December 08 2019, @07:00PM
Oh forgot to specifically address weight, which of course would have to remain in the bicycle-to-hang-glider range even with adequately efficient propulsion, or human power would stop being sufficient, ofc.
(Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Sunday December 08 2019, @09:19PM (4 children)
Unless you could levitate yourself magically, without necessity of any machine, self-powered VTOL is a technical nonsense.
But you have other options...
Scorpion 3: http://www.gadgetify.com/scorpion-3-flying-bike/ [gadgetify.com] https://55gadgets.com/scorpion-3-flying-bike/ [55gadgets.com] https://www.droneaddicts.net/hoversurf-scorpion-3-the-flying-bike-from-the-future/ [droneaddicts.net]
Duratec: http://cadablog.blogspot.com/2013/04/bike-manufacturer-duratec-wants-to.html [blogspot.com] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ovsgui4YWs [youtube.com]
Hoversurf: https://www.thedrive.com/tech/24827/dubai-police-receive-first-delivery-of-innovative-hoversurf-drone-begin-training [thedrive.com]
Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
(Score: 2, Informative) by ze on Sunday December 08 2019, @10:30PM (3 children)
Ironically, human-powered vtol has been demonstrated, but it's a big heavy ridiculously impractical contraption: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syJq10EQkog [youtube.com]
However, I said specifically that it wouldn't need to be vtol, which even if demonstrably possible is just not an efficient or practical approach for it at all. A propelled hang-gliding kind of thing would definitely be the way to go, at least if you could invent an amazing new human-powerable propulsion device.
Interesting links though, thanks!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Immerman on Monday December 09 2019, @12:29AM (2 children)
Big, yes. Heavy seems very unlikely or he'd never be able to put out enough energy to keep it off the ground.
(Score: 1) by ze on Monday December 09 2019, @02:17AM (1 child)
Well it's 120lbs according to wikipedia... light by aircraft standards, but very heavy by bicycle standards... not sure about hang-glider standards :P
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday December 09 2019, @02:34AM
Wow, I wouldn't have guessed quite that light. That thing is huge. Even assuming the fabric, cables, and rods are all carbon-fiber, that's pretty impressive.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Immerman on Monday December 09 2019, @12:51AM
>AFAICT transferring that power by friction against the ground is far more efficient than with a propeller, and there may not be any possible means of power transfer to free-air momentum efficient enough to make this feasible :(
Actually I don't think it is - I'm pretty sure such systems can get arbitrarily close to 100% efficiency in theory, and routinely operate at over 80 or 90% efficiency (depending on specific technology) at converting input energy to vehicle kinetic energy.
The woeful efficiency of flying vehicles is due to a much more fundamental problem: staying off the ground. Wheels consumes zero energy to to keep you off the ground and coasting freely. Unless your aircraft is lighter than air though, you have to constantly spend energy to resist the pull of gravity. A heavily optimized glider can travel a long way as it falls, but it's still constantly losing energy to drag, and has to slowly dive to keep its speed high enough for the wings to hold it in the air. I would not be at all surprised to learn that someone has outfitted an ultralight glider with a pedal-prop to be able to stay in the air indefinitely. Those huge long wings though are going to be a problem for any sort of transportation use - plus, you're likely to need a lot more power during takeoff to get up to speed and off the ground. Though perhaps a helper-motor for that part wouldn't be a problem.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 09 2019, @09:37AM
No pictures are displayed on the TFA and I can't figure out which of the 14 third party domains is the cdn.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday December 09 2019, @05:03PM
All of the actual flying cars resemble #2 from the article than most of the rest.
https://www.aeromobil.com/aeromobil-4_0-stol/ [aeromobil.com]
Also, you still need a pilot's license to fly them.
YouTube of actual Flying Cars:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRZNLBL7Px4 [youtube.com]
Okay, #3 on the youtube video doesn't require a pilot's license. It's essentially a paraglider, though.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"