While our parents were alive the news was brimming with drawings of electric flying cars. Oh how we imagined speeding down a freeway and soaring up into the air. Time for a quick rewind please. They are still searching for flying car batteries with sufficient power to get them off the ground.
The Catch With Current Flying Car Batteries
Any flying vehicle battery must be able to perform the following three tasks safely and reliably:
- Counteract the forces of gravity and the weight of the vehicle, and lift it into the air.
- Deliver sufficient power to the electric motor, to be able to fly to the destination.
- Have enough reserve power to land the flying car smoothly at the end of the journey.
Those words ‘sufficient power’ and ‘reserve power’ are why the industry is still searching for flying car batteries, with sufficient energy capacity to complete those three tasks.
The battery must also be able to depart, fly, and land with a payload to make the venture economically feasible. From what we hear, we are still chasing that dream.
The Search Has Been On For Over a Century
The search for self-propelled flight goes back to the days of Leonardo da Vinci, born in 1452. However, the earliest reference we found of a prototype flying car driving down a road dates to 1901.
A fellow named Glenn Curtiss came closer to a hop, a skip, and a jump in 1917, although he never quite made it. Besides, his car had a water-cooled V8 petrol engine which would have disqualified it.
Where to From Here With Electric Flying Cars?
We are aware of a number of promising flying electric car projects, although the main focus appears to be on electric air taxis. And so for now the dream of ‘a hop and a skip and a jump to flying in the air’ seems largely pended.
Meanwhile, our industry continues searching for flying car batteries that could do the job with style. In the interim we need to figure out how to regulate thousands of electric cars flying in the sky. Perhaps it is best they stay on the ground.
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