For 50 days , science fiction has been tantalise us with visions of airborne roadways and chop-chop manoeuver , sports - railcar - likeflying cars . And for 50 eld , company have been chasing the dreaming , releasing the occasional prototype to keep their investors seat . But in February 2007 , an Israeli company named Urban Aeronautics made a sheer acoustic projection : A flying automobile on the market by 2012 .
The Urban Aeronautics X - Hawk and its smaller cousin , Mule , have a very specific , guiding diligence : urban rescue . By all accounts , the conception is ripe - on . Wherehelicoptersfail , X - Hawk plans to follow . Its designers claim it can constrict decently up against a construction to rescue mass stranded on top floors and vibrate there , in contact with the social system , maintaining stability . Its technology , while patent , is interchangeable to the innovations employed in upright take - off and landing ( VTOL ) slyness market as " personal breeze vehicles " – i.e. aviate cars – like Trek Aerospace ’s Dragonfly and Moller International ’s Skycar .
In essence , the XTC - Hawk is a chopper without the monolithic , expose rotor and without the need to range in rules of order to move left and right . These two advances alone make it an idealistic urban delivery vehicle , able to maneuver in tight spaces that would prevent useful helicopter access . chopper have a hard time start out close to enough to building and mountains to be of much role when it comes to snagging people from high position . The technology behind X - Hawk ’s progress in manoeuvrability include several major upgrade over previous fly - automobile endeavor :
X - Hawk ’s archetype sits in a scrapper - special K - mode cockpit with a transparent casing for visibility . The craftsmanship is designed to wing for up to two hours on one tankful of flatulence , at up to 155 miles per hour ( 250 kilometres per hour ) and 12,000 feet ( 3,700 meters ) .
However , as of February 2007 , X - Hawk has hover just 3 ft ( 1 meter ) above the ground . Urban Aeronautics expect it to turn over full operability by 2009 . X - Hawk ’s diminished version , Mule , is predicted to shoot the sky commercially in just five eld ( the full - size X - Hawk ’s projected market day of the month is by and by , around 2015 ) . If Mule is indeed making delivery as too soon as 2012 , it could be the proof - of - concept that give the doors to other VTOLs still in the development microscope stage butthis closeto marketability . And we ’ve heard this all before ; but this time , a major aircraft manufacturer is interested . While still contemplating a real committedness to the project , Bell Helicopters is in talks with Urban Aeronautics and displayed the X - Hawk prototype at the 2006 Farnborough air travel show . Price will , of row , be an obstacle to plenty economic consumption . Urban Aeronautics estimates that the small version of the X - Hawk , with a three - person capacity , will range approximately $ 1.5 million . But for an urban rescue fomite market to the military and police military force , that ’s really not half risky .
