Author｜fan
Source｜Jiguo Editorial Department
Since the car was invented, people always hope to drive the car into the sky one day. So, overnight, flying cars became a hot commodity!
Picture source Internet ▲
After many technology giants and professional flight manufacturers kept their brains open, flying cars became more and more "rolled". Not only did they get rid of the existence of wings and become more like "cars", but even the way to go to the sky was particularly novel. The rolling wing car "Cyclo-car" developed by Russia last year took off vertically with four large wheels, which was eye-opening.
is flying. How to fly longer is also a problem that has to be overcome. For example, the Cyclo-car above has a maximum speed of 250km/h, which seems to be quite outstanding, but in fact it can only be considered medium, because the flying cars created by some people have "increased" the maximum speed per hour to 400km/h!
Last August, LEO Flight (formerly known as Urban eVTOL) showed off a new electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle - LEO Coupe. The company said that this flying supercar can carry three people, and the can reach 250 miles per hour (400 kilometers)!
LEO Flight was just established the year before yesterday. Its founders are power propulsion expert Pete Bitar and automotive designer Carlos Salaff. The former is a recognized expert in the development of light vertical takeoff aircraft and has worked with NASA; the latter has worked for Mazda . These two people have experience and qualifications, no wonder LEO Flight is confident to build a flying car.
Judging from the renderings displayed at that time, LEO Coupe looks like an sports car from a distance. When you look close, you will find that there are no wheels and multiple rotating turbines are installed on the frame. The car has a small size, which is equivalent to an urban off-road SUV. The car is easy to park in ordinary garages and land in narrow spaces.
In the following months, LEO Flight built three LEO Coupe feasibility prototypes. The first two are CanopE-Jet and ArcSpear Drone, which have been tested for flights. Now, the team has set their sights on the third experimental prototype car - the LX-1.
looks different from the cool appearance of the rendered image. It is just a flying aluminum frame, which is relatively simple overall. You can roughly see the prototype of a cockpit. It seems to have a chair and a pair of joysticks for control inside, and the driving position is just enough for a single person to sit down.
In fact, according to the original idea, the car has three seats 1+2, with the front of the driver's seat, two passenger seats at the back, and a large screen behind the driver's seat, with a flight map and other related information on it.
Other designs, the pilot seat located in the center is connected to the roof by hinges. The floor is transparent so that the driver can see a panoramic view of the ground when landing.
Back to the LX-1 prototype car, you can see that the car has four hinged legs and some thin-looking aerodynamic pillars. However, the most conspicuous thing is the large number of small electric jets in the main frame, which are used to test the propulsion system.
Each small electric jet has an electric fan device. Currently, the LX-1 prototype contains no less than 72 vertically lifted fans, each fan is about the size of a thermos bottle. These fans are divided into four groups, plus two additional large diameter fans at the back to provide horizontal thrust to the fuselage.
The reason why a large number of small electric jets is used is because the small fans in electric jets have much lower energy efficiency in vertical lift and hovering flight than large fans. Eventually, the car can take off and land vertically without long runways and take-off racks, and it can also flexibly rotate in the air.
During flight, the power comes from a 66 kWh modular battery pack, which consists of multiple parts and is placed on the body according to the optimal weight distribution.The company said the vehicle will eventually be able to fly for one hour and 15 minutes in the air, with a flight distance of 300 miles (482 kilometers), excluding the few minutes of takeoff and landing. The maximum flight speed is 400km/h.
It is said that it can carry up to 231 kilograms of passengers and cargo, and it is still very practical!
For takeoff and landing, developers hope to use their own designed platform, whether on the roof or on the ground, to quickly deploy the landing flying cars to land safely.
At present, LX-1 has passed strict propulsion system testing, laying the foundation for subsequent Leo Coupe.
Finally, LEO Flight plans to sell Leo Coupe to individuals, and is expected to be the first to issue it in overseas markets with loose relevant certification requirements, and of course it does not include fire rescue, medical and other needs. As for the price, according to Bitar, the price of this aircraft will not exceed US$290,000 (equivalent to approximately RMB 1.94 million).
Flying thousands of cars. This Leo Coupe uses a large number of small fans as thrusters to provide power, which is also unique. The key is that it flies 400 kilometers in this breath, and there is no second one for this long-distance combat power. I have to sigh again: Flying cars are becoming more and more "rolled".
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