SUPERFLY GUY
In Derby, a pair of visionary inventors are building that most dreamt-of things – a flying car, and helping to advance the UK aviation industry in the process.
It’s one of the most beloved pay-off lines in all of cinema. “Hey Doc,” says Marty McFly, at the end of Back to the Future, as he and his girlfriend Jennifer, and the crazy scientist Emmett Doc Brown prepare to send the garbage-powered DeLorean to 2015. “We’d better back up, we don’t have enough road to get up to 88mph.” “Roads?” drawls Doc, casually slipping his silver sunglasses-cum-aviator goggles over his eyes. “Where we’re going, we don’t need… roads.” And with that, the four-wheeled time machine rises 10ft off the ground, its tyres flatten outward, and the gravity-defying car whooshes off down the lanes of Hill Valley like a UFO.
From Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to Lady Penelope’s jet-powered pink Ford, and Blade Runner’s ‘Spinners’, flying cars have had a grip on the public imagination for decades; as far back, in fact, as the 18th century, when an attempt was made to build a gliding horse cart (spoiler: it didn’t work). Following the success of the Wright Brothers in 1903 in launching a flying machine that was heavier than air, other would-be-pioneers have tried to get their motors aloft with very mixed results. Mixed between “complete flop” and “never happened”. In 1917, Glenn Curtiss, pretty much ‘the father of the flying car’, attempted to get his Curtiss Autoplane off the ground by the simple expedient of attaching a four-bladed propeller to the rear – no joy. While in 1945, Robert Fulton tried the other tack of adapting an aeroplane for the road. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this worked and he built eight of the craft – he could drive the car as fast as 90 mph, get 20 miles to the gallon, and fly the plane 125 mph for 400 miles without refuelling. Sadly, financial backing evaporated and commercial production never materialised.
Later, partly inspired by Fulton’s ‘Airphibian’, “Molt” Taylor created the Aerocar – which happily cruised along at 120mph airborne. Six versions were made, and Ford even planned to market one during the 1970s, but the American oil crisis saw that plan nose-diving, too.
Like Back to the Future II’s hoverboard, then, it seems we’re still not quite ready for a mass-market flying car. Or are we? In Derbyshire, home of Rolls Royce and Bombardier, two visionary entrepreneurs think they’ve cracked it. Working out of a workshop at the iHub, in Infinity Technology Park, VRCO CEO Dan Hayes and VRCO chairman Mike Smith are building a “Fly, Float & Ground” prototype with the help of the University of Derby, who’ve given it a feasibility thumbs-up. Aimed at those with plenty of pocket money, the electric-powered NeoXCraft will initially have a range of 75 to 100 miles, with a 180 knots cruise speed and a 30-minute charge time. According to VRCO, it’ll be very safe, eco-friendly, and able to be charged exclusively on solar power. In short, they want to “produce the best, most elegant personal electric multi modal craft available”.
It’ll be “a digital device – like a phone,” says Hayes, quiet and cheap to run, and will be available in limited numbers initially (fewer than 50 per year) before VRCO plan to develop four and six-seaters. It works by having a wing shape through the centre, while turbines used for take-off turn double as both engines and wheels. And while there are other flying cars in operation, Smith and Hayes says theirs is less cumbersome, and will be able to take off (and land) vertically and on water, which the others can’t. It’ll also be able to land on a yacht, and in tighter spots than helicopters.
Neither Hayes or Smith are from the flight industry – “We’ve come at this from a no rules, no limits attitude,” says Smith – although aviation clearly runs in Hayes’ blood like jet fuel: his mum was an air hostess, his uncle was a senior operating captain for the airline Flybe, his granddad was one of the founders of Nottingham Air Club – “and my gran did a wing walk”. It was while observing aviator Yves Rossy flying around the Swiss Alps with a jetpack, that Hayes hit upon the concept in 2016. Luckily, Smith (who previously worked with Drones) didn’t try to talk him out of it. “There were some pretty crazy sketches,” says the latter, on the pair’s initial design ideas. In the course of building it, they’ve had to “invent lots of things” – including a super-conducting graphene phase.
In September, the company was among the many exhibitors at the Global Urban Air Summit 2019 in Farnborough, famed for its association with the aviation industry and its annual Air Show. Smith described himself as “delighted to see international representation” at the event, where VRCO had the opportunity to meet with Takanori ITO. He tweeted: “We look forward to our vision becoming a reality in the near future”.
“We have a great aviation heritage in this country,” says Smith, “and a lot of people have been willing to help”, such as local engineering companies, underlining the Midlands’ reputation as a hi-tech hub. They aim to have half a dozen cars ready for testing and certification by 2020, and hope their “showcase of UK craftsmanship and innovation” will lead to highly skilled aviation manufacturing job creation. You get the feeling the civic-minded Marty and the eccentric inventor Doc would definitely be impressed.
By Ali Catterall