Burt Rutans Flying Car.

[bondo]

Here are a couple of links about Burt Rutan's latest, and maybe last effort. It is sad to hear he retired in April of this year. I'll bet he still has his hand in future designs though. The amazing thing about this "flying car", it is a hybrid.


AirPigz - blog - Burt Rutan (Scaled) Model 367 BiPod: Twin Engine Electric Hybrid With 4*Props!

http://www.scaled.com/images/uploads...ewsRelease.pdf

Below are a couple of renderings done back in 1993. There are alot of similarities to the concept in the drawings and Rutan's design, even down to where the wings are stored while operating the vehicle on the ground.

It is easy to draw a picture. It is a difficult accomplishment to bring a vehicle from concept stage to reality. Burt Rutan has done this many times in his remarkable career.

Bondo

[bondo]

Originally Posted by Old Tele man

...first, there was "ROAD rage"

...now, there'll be "AIR rage"!

Best to concentrate on the technological advancement of mankind and not on the animalistic behavior we are all capable of.

Virgin Airlines owner Sir Richard Branson is aligned with Rutan's company Scaled Composites to use Rutan's Space Vehicle design to open up space travel to the masses.

So you missed one Old Tele man, "space rage".

[aerohead]

I wonder if Burt had seen Taruffi's twin-boom Tarf (Cd 0.10) of the 1940s?
Either way,its more magic from the Mojave Desert.Thanks for sharing!

[kach22i]

I found out about this project just a couple of days ago. Interesting, what else would you expect from Burt Rutan?

Burt Rutan
Aerospace innovator retired in April, but not before designing a new roadable aircraft
Unveiled: Burt Rutan's Final Creation Is A Flying Car | Popular Science

The Model 367 BiPod is a dual-fuselage, hybrid electric car-plane, which engineers at Scaled took from a preliminary design to first flight in just four months. It made its maiden trip March 30, just before Rutan’s official retirement. The company says it has made several short jaunts off the runway at Mojave, Calif., building up enough speed with the drive train to take off without propellers, which have not been installed yet.

More photos in link:
BiPod - Rutan's Latest, and Last

Span is 31ft 10in with wings attached, and 7ft 11in with the wings removed and stowed between the fuselages. As an aircraft, it is designed to cruise at 200mph and fly for around 530 miles in higher-power mode and up to 760 miles at 100mph. As a car, the BiPod is designed for freeway speeds, urban driving and garage storage, with a range of 820 miles on a tank of gas and 35 miles on batteries alone.

[bondo]

There is no telling what we can expect from Mr. Rutan. He is one of those natural innovators who takes conventionalism and throws it out the window.

I expect we will see more Space realted vehicles and always future collaboration with airframe manufacturers. Since he has now done a flying "car", it would be great to see him design some land based vehicles for hybrid propulsion systems.

Bondo