"Chris W" wrote in message
news:0ILNd.1855$53.928@lakeread07...
Just for fun, lets explore this idea some more. Obviously weight is the
biggest problem or you could just mount a folding wing, tail feathers and
prop to your Honda. The weight of a transmission to drive the wheels
directly alone would probably add to much weight to be practical. So you
suggested driving it with the prop with some kind of cage around it. If
you are going to put a cage around the prop, you might as well make it
useful. Make it a pusher prop with a ducted fan instead of a normal
simple prop. I think some home builder is working on a design like that.
Second have you ever noticed how amazingly horrible the ground handling of
every airplane I have ever seen is? To make it road worthy, even if just
for non-highway use, you would have to have a more car like suspension.
That of course is going to add a significant amount of weight to the
machine. One of the reasons airplanes are so unstable on the ground is,
by necessity the main wheels need to be pretty close to the CG. I'm not
sure you could get good ground handling with out moving the main wheels
further from the CG. Tires alone are going add a huge amount of weight,
if you try and drive around on typical airplane tires you are going to be
replacing them every time you turn around. Finally brakes, you are never
going to drive a vehicle like this on the road with out a much better
brake system than most airplanes have, and again that is going to add a
lot of weight. As another poster so rudely put it, no you can't make up
for weight with more horse power. Obviously it can and has been done, but
I doubt you will ever see a flying car that can drive or fly very good at
all.

I agree with all of your points.
Additionally, I think acceleration would be an issue.
If you were stopped at a red light, you might get some horns honked at you
unless you could start moving right away.
My plane has some lag before it starts moving.

It seems that we have identified about five areas to focus on:
1. propulsion (caged prop, pusher prop, ducted fan)
2. ground handling
3. tires
4. brakes
5. acceleration

I don't think this is a comprehensive list, but for the sake of argument,
let's say that it is.
The problem now becomes a whole lot more like engineering problem solving
than pie-in-the-sky.

I'll have to think about each of these a bit before trying to attempt
possible solutions, but now I have some things to think about.

Adam
N7966L
Beech Super III