My friends and I often raise the theme of alternative vehicles and the most often topic in this case is flying transport. What if our cars flew, what problems would we face? So I think it will be interesting for you too, but firstly lets speak about flying vehicles in general and about autogyro in particular. Moreover I've found interesting article devoted to the first fly of Dutch autogyro.
The two-seat vehicle can transform from frisky tricycle into maneuver autogyro. As constructors claim the vehicle is easy to operate on a road and in sky. This project was developing for about 7 years and has passed numbers of stages of design and debugging prototypes.
According to the information from Gizmag a new PAL-V has following sizes- 4 meters in length, and 1,6 meters in width and height. The vehicle weights about 680 kilograms when empty and can lift about 230 kilograms.
The novelty uses gas engine with 220 hp, but in the future PAL-V Europe Company will add few engines which will use biodiesel and bioethanol.
The transformation of the PAL-V from a tricycle to autogyro takes less than 10 minutes. A part of this operation is performed with your hands in order to increase reliability and ease the construction of the vehicle, the process itself is quite simple and anyone can learn how to do it.
To takeoff the PAL-V 165 meters are enough, and for landing the autogyro you will need just 30 meters.
In the sky and on the road the maximum speed reaches 180 km/h, but the dynamic for such kind of the vehicle is just fantastic - it accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h just in 8 seconds! The minimal horizontal speed of fly will be just 50 km/h. As for the fuel consumption 8,3 liters for the road and 36 liters/hour in the sky. With full gas tank the PAL-V is believed to overcome 1200 kilometers (on ground) and 350-500 kilometers in the sky. However, if something happens to your engine or you run out of the fuel, your autogyro PAL-V won't fall down, it will just glide to the ground.
Another advantage of this vehicle is that it flies below 1200 meters, so it means you shouldn't provide any plan of your flight to a dispatcher. According to the statements of the PAL-V Europe the vehicle corresponds to all standards and requirements of light aircraft and automobile construction, so you may legally use it in the air or in roads.
As the company claims, you can buy one of those PAL-Vs in the beginning of 2014. Are you interested? I think that this vehicle is so cool and in the era of traffic jams and other road problems it is just indespensable.
