back to article Enterprising French chap cranks up €100k 'flying car'

A French entrepreneur is hoping that by 2015, those with €100,000 in spare change will slip the surly bonds of earth aboard his Vaylon Pégase (Pegasus) flying car. Artists impression of Pegasus in flight. Pic: Vaylon La voiture volante. Pic: Vaylon Jérôme Dauffy's vehicle is actually a powered paraglider concept, with the …

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  1. FartingHippo
    Megaphone

    Aaaaargghhh, my eeeeeeears!!

    Wish they'd spent some of that cash on a decent soundtrack for the video.

    1. The Man Who Fell To Earth Silver badge
      FAIL

      Needs work

      Propeller needs a cage, like an airboat's. The tires are too narrow for any real use on sand.

  2. MJI Silver badge

    So when you saw Pegasus who first thought of ....

    The famous jet engine.

    That is what went through my mind when I saw the RSS feed.

  3. dogged

    That's awesome and I want one.

    1. Peter Simpson 1

      ...moi aussi!

      1. ElReg!comments!Pierre

        Me too

        But it would be even sexier with a flat bottom à la fanboat

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        ... moi kiwi!

      3. TitterYeNot
        Coat

        ...moi aussi!

        What has you being Australian got to do with it?

        Yeah yeah, I'm going...

        1. Henry Minute

          Re: ...moi aussi!

          You should go too.

          The Kiwi is a New Zealand boidie, not an aussie one.

  4. stu 4

    We did it first

    Parajet did this a few years ago. Exactly the same pretty much.

    http://www.fly-skyrunner.com/

    stu

    (paramotor pilot)

    1. dogged

      Re: We did it first

      Yours looks cooler.

      I'm still not going to complain about which one I get though.

    2. Ralph B

      Re: We did it first

      Since 2009!

    3. Martin Budden Silver badge

      Re: We did it first

      Yours has decent wheels too. Nice!

  5. Don Jefe

    Costs

    I would be very, very interested to see what the French government wants to get for their €60k contribution. The French aren't stupid, I wonder who this guy is married to.

    You can't even test the tires for that kind of money, much less all the other stuff that breaks when you hybridize any two things that are substantially different. My lion-horse hybrid was a disaster. Of course the lions are going to be angry if they have to chase something down to mate with it. Stupid horses.

    In seriousness, I used the tire testing example because we've designed tire testing rigs for a few tire manufacturers and it is really, really involved. They've got use specific criteria that I wouldn't have considered in a million years (that's probably why we don't make tires...). But there's a lot more to them than some steel belts wrapped in rubber.

    If a vehicle like this is something somebody wants then this guy has my best wishes. I'm fairly positive his price point is really, really low though. It's a bit of a joke, but if you 'flying' to anything there's a default cost multiplier of 3,553,221 to everything involved.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Costs

      The French aren't stupid. Since when?

      As for testing tyres, who cares when the wheels will collapse on the first rough landing. Ask any mountain-bikers. Spoken wheels don't do rough landings.

      On the positive side, if the French are in it when it collapses on landing, they can just hop to their destination !!! See what I did there ;-)

      1. MJI Silver badge

        Spoked wheels

        Seen enough scrambling to know spoked wheels are fine (now called motocross)

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Costs

        > Ask any mountain-bikers.

        Mountain and trials biker here.

        > Spoken wheels don't do rough landings

        What do you think we use then?

      3. Graham Dawson Silver badge

        Re: Costs

        @AC, Since they figured out that running away from the bullets and blockading calais tends to get positive results for the French.

        One good example: They dropped out of the Eurofighter program early on and built their own Rafale instead. It came out lighter, more manoeuvrable, more versatile, capable of carrier service from the start, cheaper and was flying sooner - and they didn't have to faff around waiting for guns to arrive after the plane was officially in service.

        They know their stuff, the French.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Costs

          You mean they are proud enough to not sell out. It's strange times though. Eventually even the French will sell out.

        2. MJI Silver badge

          Re: Costs

          Rafale

          Slower, slower rate of climb. not as good RADAR.

          That said the Eurofighter is basically the BA EAP, and the EJ200 is basically a Rolls Royce design.

          In otherwords would the Typhoon have been better if we had gone on our own?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Pint

      Re: Costs

      I have now officially developed the ability to detect a Don Jefe comment within a few lines without checking the poster's name. In this case I realized it when I got to "lion horse hybrid".

      If I drank, I'd raise a glass to your commenting, Jefe - well done, sir!

    3. Uffish

      Re: Costs

      The €60k contribution plus probably about the same amount of money for checking the guys calculations is almost indistinguishable from zero in the arms industry context. Seems good value for money for checking out the feasability and capability of the concept; if it flies and lands a few times without killing the guy then much more work will of course have to be done.

  6. M7S

    A better flying car

    http://www.aeromobil.com/#url-specification

    Have a look at the video http://www.independent.co.uk/video/?videoid=3061425677001

    Looks better than the Terrafugia

    1. Swarthy
      Boffin

      Re: A better flying car

      I am liking the PAL-V concept. although the Terrafugia 2.0 concept looks pretty slick as well.

      I am actually a bit disappointed in El Reg's Flying Car Desk, as there have been many updates in this field with more promise than this article(and far more than Moller's works), with little to no mention. I was beginning to wonder if they had closed that desk (cutbacks, you know).

      Flying Goggles -->

    2. Michael Thibault

      Re: A better flying car

      > Looks better than the Terrafugia

      Not... all that... difficult to do, frankly. This aeormobil thing is at least a little bit swoopy. I'd prefer a jet-belt, though, as it's more *cough* portable.

  7. TRT Silver badge

    Looks like...

    a Nod buggy.

  8. Luke McCarthy

    Looks lethal

    Imagine one of those parachute wires getting caught in a nearby tree. I don't see any advantage of this over, for example, an autogyro.

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Looks lethal

      I'll race you over the ground in somewhere like Afghanistan or North Africa in Little Nellie

  9. DrXym

    Cool idea

    I don't see it being very practical though e.g. how long would it take to fold up that massive parachute after landing? What happens if it's raining or windy?

    Since it's slower in the air than on the ground (and slower depending if the wind is behind) so it's probably most useful in areas without an adequate road network, or where there are perhaps rivers or other natural obstacles to cross. Maybe it would be useful for some kind of "flying doctor" type role.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  10. Return To Sender

    Tyres?

    And those skinny, presumably weight-saving, tyres would be how useful exactly on soft or dodgy terrain? Just curious, I have no experience to bring to bear, but it seems a bit daft to fly yourself into somewhere only to end up hub-deep in the sand...

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Tyres?

      If the vehicle is light enough you just lift it out.

      A big advantage a 2CV has over a HumVee

  11. Tom 7

    I'm thinking a Caterham 7 kit car

    and about 10 grand of Big Foot suspension and maybe another 5 for the prop add on and you're up up and away for 1/2 the money.

  12. rototype

    They've missed a trick

    If it's that light, why oh why didn't they give it a decent lightweight hull as well and make it so it's amphibious as well (Ok, the frenchies don't need this but for the rest of us...)

    With air sea and land capability they'd probably more than double their potential sails (pun intended.

  13. Zot

    When they get rid of that fan...

    ...and I can hear the music playing, and not have to communicate by shouting really loudly.

    THEN I'll buy one! : )

    1. ElReg!comments!Pierre

      Re: When they get rid of that fan...

      Well you can replace the fan with a rocket I guess. Good luck with the music...

  14. dbhh

    It's been done

    Parajet, a British company, did this ages ago. They did a 6000km 42 day test flight in the first prototype. It looks better than this French thing too. An added bonus: 0-62mph in 4.3 seconds on the ground!

  15. imanidiot Silver badge

    Paragliders suck

    Paraglider canopies suck for any sort of long distance flight. They lack penetrating power when flying against the wind. The single seat paramotor units already have a hard time with a 5 knot headwind. I've seen one trying to get into a 10 knot headwind, with full power, and barely have any forward groundspeed at all. Also, good luck taking off in one with ANY sort of cross wind component!

  16. sisk

    This looks suspiciously like the Parajet Skycar (or Skyrunner now I guess). They've been taking preorders for years. So far as I know that one was the first practical 'flying car' yet no one ever seemed to be talking about it, even after they made a successful trip of over 1k miles in it. That and last time I looked they were taking preorders at half the price of this one.

  17. Paul Renault

    "Enterprising French chap"? Missed opportunity..old chap!

    I would have gone with "Bauphin".

    Sacre bleu!

  18. JCitizen
    Black Helicopters

    I vote PAL-V ---> ~~~

    I liked the PAL-V better! The article video was stupid!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgHSaNtAMjs

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Another vote for the Skycar

    British, works, got there first, no apparent support from the Government- just from good Engineering!

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