The Samson Switchblade flying car

Every flying car startup is a grift, I guarantee.

There are two possibilities when it comes to making a flying car viable

1. Use fossil fuels even less efficiently because now not only does your vehicle have to move forward, it now has to keep itself in the sky.

2. Use electric motors which are already hard enough to sell in cars because they don't give as much range, and then put them in an application where, again, they have to keep something in the sky.

It's just not feasible, along with all the other requirements for training, storage/landing area, etc...

The FAQ says "We are now only months away from first flight".

Hmm... back in 2017, they were "hoping to make the first flight by the end of [that] year". https://robbreport.com/motors/aviation/samson-motorworks-swi...

So how long has that FAQ entry been in place, I wonder?

The dream of the flying car isn't being able to drive and store a plane, its being able to leave your garage and land at work or get groceries. This means that vertical take off and landing, easy safe controls, and accessible pricing. There are huge challenges in each of those areas to overcome. This solution solves none of those.

Its still a really cool iteration of single engine planes. Easier/cheaper to store, uses gas, drive after landing. Just not at all a flying car in soul.

Do I want people flying over me who are barely able to drive normally?

No.

Do I see a realistic need for a flying taxi?

No.

Are normal small existing planes to maintain quite expensive in Germany?

Yes.

Is it realistic that this financial overhead is feasible for all those people actually living under those airways which would make sense?

No.

Do we as a society and not super rich want that?

No.

Calling it a flying car seems to be triggering a lot of misunderstanding. It's not really a flying car, it's more of a driving airplane, but I guess that doesn't get as much attention.

You're not going to use this for commuting from the suburbs, but for midrange travel and/or those inclined to general aviation, there's a lot of use to an aircraft that isn't confined to the airport.

So what makes this different from the myriad other attempts to build a flying car?

Flying cars are always poor cars and poor airplanes.

"Flying Car" drives me crazy. The requirements of flight and road travel are enormously exclusive.

I'm super excited about the new possibilities personal, local flight enabled by all the developing tech like batteries, multi-rotors, controllers, peer-to-peer and ADS-B. That type of craft will go a long way to diminishing the needs for roads and parking lots.

As much as I dream of someday being able to just buy a flying machine and go away flying it's unlikely to ever happen, not in the way these companies are envisioning it. I have this crazy vision about flying machines: Free direction takeoff. Not just horizontal takeoff; Warp drive propulsion: If lots of flying machines just fly in the same space-time plane it would become a mess, fast. Until science discover some way to warp the space/time around the machine it won't work; I'm talking hundreds of years till we get there; Guess my imagination is pretty fertile;

I've always felt like flying cars are a solution looking for a problem. Massive deployment of flying cars has similar problems to cars on the ground (need space to land/park, airspace isn't unlimited, humans can't be trusted to fly safely). Additionally, they don't go fast enough to glide and don't have enough rotor mass to perform an autorotation in the event of total power loss. I doubt they're viable as a method of transportation at any large scale.

EDIT: Not to mention the much worse energy efficiency - staying in the air is _expensive_.

Tricycle layout (2 wheels in back, 1 in front) cars have always cornered poorly compared to the reverse. I honestly don't know why this is, but it would be a concern for me with this vehicle.

Is it just me or do those wings look comically undersized given how small the engine is?

And I can't picture how you're ever going to land this thing with basically no travel in the landing gear and the wings inches from the surface. I'd like to see a 1:3 model land a few dozen times before any human gets into one.

Looks about as sturdy as a dodge neon with wings imho...

Why the hard angles on the tail wing attachment? Seems like it's just begging to get ripped off in turbulence.

He keeps saying "you" in the video, like we all have room in our garage for a 2 seat flying car and a personal airfield.

Yawn.

I was more excited about the Faraday electric commuter bike I saw at a bike rack today: https://www.faradaybikes.com/product/cortland/

Practical, fun, reasonably priced, and viable now for a whole heck of a lot more people than flying cars!

Needs 4 wheels to be considered a car. Nice trike though.