The Pipistrel Virus: a 50 MPG flying car? Uh, no
So, here we have another attempt at the flying car, except this time the winner gets money from NASA. While the chances that the average consumer will be able to pull into their nearest Ford dealership and hand over a down payment for the Pipistrel Virus, the fact that NASA is involved lends a bit of credibility, right?
So, is the Virus the real deal when it comes to a vehicle that can seamlessly move from the highway on the road to the great highway in the sky? Nope, not even close - it is solely an airplane as a matter of fact. But, it is known as the "Prius of airplanes" reaching up to 170 mph and getting up to 50 miles to the gallon. In case you were wondering, no - it's not a hybrid. With the vehicle costing $70,000, though, you might wonder why our cars seem so much less efficient.
[Source: News.com and Engadget]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Snark 10:53AM (8/14/2007)
What a ridiculously misleading picture. That's NOT a Pipistrel Virus.
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Paul 11:01AM (8/14/2007)
Nope, not even close to the Pipistrel Virus. The Virus is essentially just a powered glider, which leads to the obvious question of what this has to do with flying cars. I guess this is step one, establish that we can fly...
(incidentally, since a Cessna 172 designed circa the '40s won one of their categories, I find even the technology advancing merits of this "contest" quite baffling...I'd rather see NASA spend the money on chicken wire to wrap around the shuttle's external fuel tank to once and for all end the blasted shedding foam conundrum)
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rgseidl 7:57PM (8/14/2007)
Machines that are equally at home on the road, in the air or on the water - or at least any two of these - hold a special kind of fascination for transportation tech geeks. To date, few designs have worked and even fewer have ever made any economic or even military sense. That hasn't stopped people from trying:
http://www.pal-v.com/
http://www.gibbstech.co.uk/aquada.php
http://www.seafalcon.net/
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david wilder 10:58AM (8/31/2007)
The Pipistrel Virus is a little more than a powered glider. Its one of a new breed of light aircraft that may help change general aviation.
Its more efficient than aircraft of even a few years ago.
The terms of reference for the competition where it won NASA money are directed to eventually, repeat eventually reduce traffic pollution by having cheap(relatively) very fuel efficint vehicles that can land and take off in a small space and will be easy to use-and safe- so that the burden on the ground transportation system may be reduce.
To sneer becasue it isn't a flying car is a cheap shot. It wasn't mean to be that.
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