Flying Electric Bicycle Debuts In Prague, Will NYC Ban These Too?

File this one in your goofy folder!

New Yorker? Own an electric bicycle?

You're probably pretty angry right now, since the city has just banned the use of electric bikes on its streets. Which would be fine, had you not just bought one, still entirely legally, from a shop.

It's okay though, we have a solution--turn it into a flying machine.

It's doubtful the illegality of electric bikes is what spurred three Czech companies to invent the unusual contraption you see above (discovered via TreeHugger), but it would certainly eliminate some of the issues raised in NYC's e-bike ban.

Pedestrian collisions? Thing of the past. You'd simply sail above pedestrian heads. The shorter ones, anyway. And the flying bike certainly isn't as quiet as a regular e-bike, nor likely to travel as fast, at least on a horizontal plane. So they'd hear you coming and have time to dive for cover.

Trees might become an issue, however, as might traffic signals, power lines, skyscrapers and any other solid object still present above head-height.

And we're not sure it would stop the problems associated with fast food delivery riders either. They're bad enough on the ground, let alone given a whole other physical dimension to play with. We can't quite shake visions of your Chinese food being delivered, at quite some speed and with little finesse, directly through your third-floor apartment window. Along with the person delivering it and the grizzly remains of a startled pigeon.

It's enough to petrify, something you initially suspect happened to the flying bike's pilot, until you realise it's simply a remote-controlled dummy. Given that the bike's creators are apparently unwilling to demonstrate it themselves, we're even less keen on the idea.

Once back on earth, we do see one final problem with the flying bike--it probably wouldn't work that well as a bike. You couldn't slot through traffic, and parking would be a nightmare.

On second thoughts, New Yorkers, don't bother turning your electric bike into a flying electric bike. It may be a little harder getting about, but your city will be a whole lot safer...

Source: Green Car Reports

A Remote Control Car/Helicopter Brings Flying Cars To Life

Despite the fact that flying cars haven’t taken off yet (no pun intended), people have been coming up with better ways to resolve their main problems. The “B” might helicopter car be the best design yet.

Like the Terrafugia flying hybrid, this small-scale flying car called the “B” partly addresses the issue of wing, blade size and drag. When riding, the B’s blades actually don’t protrude far out like those of the rest of the flying cars. Instead they lock into place while driving, keeping a very narrow profile.

The inventor,Witold Mielniczek, certainly thought out of the box. The vehicle has no wings, which is a major plus for full-scale cars. The wheels have no hubs, spokes, or rims either. On top of that, the blades are inside of the wheels, called driving rings, and rotate to allow the B to lift off and land vertically, eliminating the need for runways.

In other words, this little remote controlled car/plane eliminates all the drawbacks of flying cars, except probably the price. Could flying cars finally have a real future that doesn’t involve folding out huge wings or dragging a trailer behind you? It’s a brilliant design.

You can actually obtain your very own B by pledging at least £320/$500 on Kickstarter. Keep in mind that if you pledge £320, you will receive an assembly kit so you assemble the B. If you pledge upwards of £370/$575, you will receive it fully assembled and ready to use.

This project has obtained about £64,000/$99,000 (73%) of its £86,500/$134,000 goal so far. Who knows, maybe one day they’ll even make a full-scale, road-worthy model?

Source: Kickstarter

The Terrafugia TF-X: A 200 MPH Flying Plug-In Hybrid Car

The Terrafugia TF-X is a flying plug-in hybrid car that manages to eliminate one of the main impediments to flying cars; the ability to take off. So far, most flying cars need a long runway just to get in the air, but this new design allows vertical take off and landing scenarios. Is this the dawn of the flying car?

Most people don’t own runways. Not even 1% of the world’s population (probably less 1% of the top 1%, actually). There have been so many attempts at building flying cars, but no one has yet been able to overcome this obstacle.

The Terrafugia TF-X is a flying plug-in hybrid car that addresses the runway issue by taking off vertically using a pair of propellers that unfold and position themselves like helicopter rotors so they thrust downwards to push the vehicle straight up into the air, so you can literally fly in and out of your own little driveway. This system is similar to that deployed by the V-22 Osprey, a military insertion vehicle that can tilt its rotors in a similar fashion.

The Terrafugia TF-X should have a top speed of 200 MPH. It is propelled forward by a gas engine, and it takes off using electric motors, and it can be recharged by plugging it in. As for the propellers, they fold down so that the car isn’t the size of a truck all the time, without the blades inducing unnecessary drag while driving on the ground with other cars.

We don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, but this is the first real flying car design that we could see actually working. Of course it will probably still be too expensive for most of us plebeians to afford, but maybe one day our kids will be able to afford flying cars of their own.

Source: Jalopnik