Flying Car to the Rescue

The idea is not new, it goes back more than 50 years, and what it is aiming at is to give the vehicle what choppers are lacking or to give choppers what they are lacking, namely to fly low in urban areas where their exposed rotor will put them at risk and the idea is to replace the rotors with encased fans enabling the vehicle to get closer to buildings such as skyscrapers when a rescue mission is needed. What brought the flying car in the spotlight is someone in Israel has started working on it with the hope that the vehicle will be used in battlefield to rescue wounded soldiers. There are companies in the U.S. that had been working with similar concept but they still are not committed to it because of not knowing what kind of cost will be involved. One such company is Bell that had exhibited a mock-up X-Hawk at the 2006 Farnborough air show and the company is not yet convinced it will be feasible technically even if it believes there will be a huge market for it, simply because the technology could hit a snag. If the plan is successful the model that will carry two wounded soldiers could fetch $1.5 million whereas a military model carrying up to twelve people could fetch $12 million.