Flying Car Essay

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For over a hundred years, right from the time when airplanes were invented, people have worked on inventing a 'flying car'. It is only now, when science and technology have reached greater heights, that the dream of the common man owning his own personal air vehicle seems to be plausible. One of the biggest proofs of this new reality is the stamp of approval given by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the mass production of Terrafugia's personal air vehicle, Transition. So to know how exactly this personal air vehicle will work, let us start from the basics. Basics of Flying Cars A flying car, as the name implies, is a vehicle that can be flown in the air and used on the roads. That means, it obviously has to have the basic characteristics of an aircraft (like propellers) and a car (like road tires). It would have to be light enough to fly in the air and strong enough to move on the road. Because a flying car would have the ability to land and drive, it would have to be able to take the impact of hitting the road and then moving on it uninterrupted, smoothly. Besides, it would have to be installed with additional safety features before being released for the public use. Working of Modern Flying Cars Though we commonly use 'flying cars' and 'roadable aircraft' as synonyms, they have a slight difference (which is easy to spot). Flying cars are cars adapted to fly while roadable aircraft are aircraft adapted to be used on the road. The inventors of the early flying cars worked more on adapting a car to fly in the air while the recent inventions of flying cars have been in adapting an aircraft for asphalt roads. Whatever may be the case, a modern personal air vehicle will need to have the following modified features (all related to the basics discussed before): Engines These engines should have enough horsepower to lift the vehicle into the

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