Also see "The Role of the Flying Car."

What Type of Flying Car Should I Own?

In choosing a flying car design, one has to first ask oneself, "What do I want this flying car to do for me?" The answer to that question will profoundly affect your choice of types.

In discussing the options, let's first leave out the vertical take-off flying car for now. The reason for this is that most of suburbia and city dwellers will not take kindly to the noise and downwash problems these machines currently pose. In time as attitudes and facilities change they will probably have a large place in the market but at the moment they do not seem to fill a practical large-scale need in a practical manner.

For similar reasons the flying car ahead of you on the freeway which suddenly sprouts wings and takes off from its place in traffic, is currently impractical, as well. It has regulatory, if not technical problems, and this is something we will have to evolve into.

This brings us down to two types of flying cars, for both of which airstrips figure into some phase of their usage.

1. The "leave a piece at the airport" (LPA) type of flying car which leaves the flight component at the airport when the car drives away. You must return to the same landing place to fly again.
2. The "take-it-all-with-you" (TAW) flying car, which does just as its title suggests. Post-landing, in some fashion, all of the parts go with you, so that you can travel to another airport to continue your flight again. There are two types of vehicle IN this category. I borrow Lionel Salisbury's "Roadable Times" definitions here.

a. The integrated flying car with wings fold, the prop is not operated, and you essentially drive and entire, albeit folded up, airplane on the highway.

b. The modular unit. In this case the car becomes just that and the flight component becomes a trailer or some such attachment.

Let's look at each type for its advantages and disadvantages.

Firstly, Consider the LPA flying car.
This machine is easier to build, requires fewer licenses to operate, and may well satisfy some people's needs. You are still stuck with hangar or tie-down rent and significant operating restrictions, not applicable to the next category under discussion.

Next, the TAW flying car
Under this, first we'll examine the integrated machine. This machine is great if you're willing to put up with certain penalties. These penalties depend on the sophistication of the designer (spell sophistication as complexity in most all of the units I've seen). It is relatively easy to conceptualize such a design but far more difficult to practically deal with the machinery to make it happen reliably. The conflicting CG requirements of a car and an aircraft- fuel storage space and so forth. The traffic exposure of a complete airplane and the highway gawkers are the least of the problem. I've got over a 100 sketches and still don't have what I consider to be a practical solution for this design at this time in history. Don't give up the sketch pads. I'm sure someone will do it well eventually.

Finally, we look at the TAW modular flying car.
I chose this for the Volante for several reasons. I could not get an integrated design to meet all of the combination aircraft/car requirements without complex heavy machinery and also I didn't think the world was ready for it on an economic basis. It may well be that unit production cost at 100,000 vehicles or more per year will be low enough for a significant number of pilots to own , but it will be some time before that market develops. In fact, I chose the kit route for initial introduction, because I think the flying car has to demonstrate its projected value before any entrepreneur will invest the magnificent sums required for serial production.
We really need to learn the "real world" contribution a flying car makes within the aviation spectrum before we know what it should look like, how it will operate, what are its economies, all of its pros and cons.

Again, I did many configurations and even built another flying car prior to the presently flying design. Even this No. 2 design has evolved further in a production model that for proprietary reasons I am holding close to my vest. I tend to have to learn by experience and what I think I have learned is that "the devil is in the details," You don't want to need a large toolbox and to have a lot of complex fallible machinery when you land on a rainy night in "Nowheresville, USA."

I think that with the Volante I have achieved a design that will provide the largest number of presently recognized flying car advantages with a minimum of complexity. On top of that, the practical dual use of the separable car makes a lot of sense, as well. Not to be overlooked is the fact that completion of the flying car provides the builder with a useful interim product along the way to flight, as well as justified "bragging rights," even if he takes a vacation from his project for a period of time at this plateau.
Looking at an "all or nothing" aircraft kit project has often resulted in the "nothing" choice by an inexperienced builder. Needless to say, this design in contrast to many integrated designs, also allows all of the ease of use of the LPA machine. In fact, if an LPA machine meets your needs, it is your choice to build when you buy a Volante kit.

This paper is intended to complement the attached paper on "The Role of the Flying Car in a Revitalized National Transportation System Improvement Plan" so I'm not going to spend a lot of time on the "nickel and dime" advantages and disadvantages of owning a flying car. I'll just list a few below.

• No hangar or tie down rent - you can take the whole thing home and keep it on one side of a two-car garage without the alternative outdoor weathering costs.
• A second car. The car can be driven daily from the garage without disturbing the flight section.
• Transportation (for sure) at a destination. Not all airports have rental cars.
• A practical alternative to an instrument ticket. You can land and drive through the weather instead of pushing through to all too frequent disaster.
• A vast time, reliability and convenience advantage over the scheduled airlines for mid length trips, particularly since 9/11

You may well think of others. If you do, let me know and we will build up a knowledge base together. My address, email and telephone number are noted on this web site. Please, also feel free to pick holes in my logic. And send them to me as well.

As you will note, many, but not all of the advantages noted above are of primary interest to the traveler of relatively modest means compared to the corporate executive for whom cost is not an issue. In the next paper we will deal with an almost immediate and less costly way to achieve the NASA

The vehicle shown to the right is the second Volante designed and built by K.P.Rice. The original made some 300 flights and the car portion was driven frequently. That machine was dismantled to provide components for the new design. The same car was much modified for use in the current Volante. See it fly!

These pictures show the first Volante in flight and road configurations.