Biofuel-Powered Flying Car Cleared for Takeoff

By Dave Demerjian

The closest we've come to a flying car is the one sitting in the Jetsons' driveway. That doesn't keep the dreamers from trying. We've already seen Moller's Skycar, the Transition from Terrafugia, and the AirCar. Now a British company led by a globe-trotting adventurer is jumping -- or is that parachuting? -- into the fray.

Parajet is preparing for the inaugural flight of SkyCar, a biofuel-powered land/air hybrid vehicle the company says will deliver rally car performance on the ground and aircraft performance in the sky. Since it runs on biofuel and features an aluminum frame, ParaJet says it's jut a matter of time before the clean, green SkyCar is the airborne equivalent of a Toyota Corolla.

That's quite a promise.

SkyCar is the brainchild of Neil Laughton, an ex-Royal Marine Officer and SAS soldier and adventurer. While the rest of us are planning summer vacations at the beach or in the mountains, Laughton is doing things like pulling a sled to the North Pole, jet skiing around England and motorcycling into the Sahara. He learned to fly just four years ago, which makes his leadership of the SkyCar project all the more impressive.

AVWeb calls the SkyCar a new twist on the powered parachute, and as the company's Photoshopped image shows, it's right. SkyCar is essentially the result of an unholy union between a dune buggy and a paraglider. Beneath its parachute is a 1,000-cc four banger pulled from a Yamaha R1 motorcycle that produces 140 horsepower and somehow runs on biofuel. It can drive the rear wheels or the huge propeller. Although the prototype has a steel chassis, production models will be made of aluminum to increase range and performance.

Parajet says recent advancements in flexible-wing technology and parafoil design have been key to developing the SkyCar because they allow for more precise handling and increased safety compared to conventional rigid wings. The company claims the "parawing" is so compact it can be folded in just minutes.

The performance stats touted by the company are impressive. In fly mode, the the Skycar will take off at 35 mph from any airstrip longer than 650 feet. It will hit a top speed of 68 mph and a cruising altitude of 2,000 to 3,000 feet and a max altitude of 15,000 feet -- though we don't know who's be brave enough to venture so high, given that hypoxia and altitude sickness become an issue at 10,000 feet if you aren't in a pressurized cabin. Range is 185 miles.

Flip the car to drive mode, which takes three minutes, and you're looking at a rear-wheel-drive vehicle the company says will do zero to 60 in 4.5 seconds and top out at 100 mph.

The big news is that the company is planning its maiden voyage for this coming January. If all goes as planned, the SkyCar will take off from London, travel south through France and Spain, and then across parts of Western Africa before landing in Tombouctou, a city in Mali that borders the Southern Sahara.

So far, previous attempts at flying cars haven't gotten all that far, but there are some legit companies backing Laughton's project. They include London bank C. Hoare & Co; Future Capital Partners, a structured finance firm that specializes in green projects; and Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, the first man to cross Antarctica on foot.

Will the SkyCar be the first to become commercially viable? We'll know more in a few months.

Photos by Parajet.