For years, flying automobiles have only existed in science fiction. Several attempts have been made to overcome this mechanical impossibility and build one in reality. This dream might be a little closer to coming to fruition, and this could shape how we commute, work, and live in the coming decades.
According to Chinese state news agency, Chinese researchers at Southwest University in Chengdu, Sichuan province, conducted road testing last week for modified passenger cars that use magnets to float 35 m.m above a conductor rail.
To put it another way, the experimental vehicle employs magnetic levitation technology.
The researchers placed eight sedans with strong magnets on the vehicle bottoms and tested them along an 8-km rail.
Surprisingly, one of the eight cars reached a speed of 230 km per hour.
The cars may be seen occasionally levitating as they move over the track in a video that a Chinese journalist posted.
According to government transportation authorities conducted the experiments to research high-speed driving safety measures. However, according to Deng Zigang, a university professor who worked on the vehicles' development, adopting magnetic levitation for passenger cars may result in lower energy consumption and greater range.
That might help with "range anxiety," a problem faced by the electric vehicle industry when customers worry that they won't be able to finish a trip in an electric car without running out of power.
Since the 1980s, some commercial trains have employed magnetic levitation, or "maglev," which uses an electrified magnetic field to propel or pull objects at high speeds. Today, maglev trains are used in South Korea, China, and Japan.
In Qingdao, Shandong province, last year, China unveiled a maglev bullet train with a top speed of 600 kilometers per hour.
A flying car or roadable aircraft is a type of vehicle which can function both as a personal car or automobile and as an aircraft. As used here, this includes vehicles which drive as motorcycles when on the road. The term "flying car" is also sometimes used to include hovercars. Many prototypes have been built since the early 20th century, using a variety of flight technologies. Most have been designed to take off and land conventionally using a runway, although VTOL projects are increasing. None has yet been built in more than a handful of numbers.
Their appearance is often predicted by futurologists, and many concept designs have been promoted. But their failure to become a practical reality has led to the catchphrase "Where's my flying car?", as a paradigm for the failure of predicted technologies to appear.
Flying cars are also a popular theme in fantasy and science fiction stories.
A flying car must be capable of safe and reliable operation both on public roads and in the air. For mass adoption, it will also need to be environmentally friendly, able to fly without a fully qualified pilot at the controls, and come at affordable purchase and running costs.
Design configurations vary widely, from modified road vehicles such as the AVE Mizar at one extreme to modified aircraft such as the Plane Driven PD-1 at the other. Most are dedicated flying car designs.
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