First thing last thursday morning - I wondered into Hall 3 and came across Aston Martin (shaken but not stirred lol ) booth. They are entering the aerospace business albeit with flying car eVTOL with the Vision Concept. Partnering with likes of Rolls Royce etc so here are my photos
Do they describe it as a flying car? The cygnet, yes, an extremely cynical piece of marketing over substance but then the Toyota that it came from was an epic fail in the eyes of Toyota.
Do they describe it as a flying car? The cygnet, yes, an extremely cynical piece of marketing over substance but then the Toyota that it came from was an epic fail in the eyes of Toyota.
EVERY venture into the realm of aeronautics by Toyota was seen by them as an epic fail. But then it seems to me they always strived for a zero risk approach. Just look at the Scaled Lima 2 and the TAA-1 Budgie... Not only they never communicated over these projects but quickly tried to erase their steps. I heard that when Ron Wanttajah shot the Lima 2 through a wire mesh at Scaled in Mojave and published the photos, the Toyota people were least amused...
The cygnet was a car pure and simple from the Toyota IQ, also a car with no flying aspirations what so ever. Also an epic fail due to its production cost and lack of sales.
After somebody stuck a V8 in the Cygnet, the connection of car-to-road was problematic. Which is as close to take off as anyone would want to.
https://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/aston-martin/cygnet/v8-2dr/first-drive
Yes, seen that. Sad in many ways but when seen as a method of promoting engineering services a first class act. Still not a flying car, any more than the M5 a teenager took off the end of a runway and down a steep hill/embankment was and the result just as painful.
Aston Martin – the very name suggest a sleek, extremely fast and sought after motor vehicle. Now the iconic Aston is going one further – by seeking to enter the private flying vehicle race with an autonomous electrified aircraft previewed by the Volante Vision Concept. Although still a design concept it appears that a prototype of the luxury three-seat craft could take to the skies in 2020.
Produced in collaboration with Cranfield University, Cranfield Aerospace Solutions and Rolls-Royce, the vehicle will be able to take off vertically thanks to a set of rotor blades that can alter their angle. It has been described by Aston as “a hybrid-electric vehicle for urban and inter-city air travel”.
Cranfield University and Cranfield Aerospace Solutions have handled much of the vehicle’s technical development, while Rolls-Royce has provided its hybrid power source, the details of which have been kept secret so far. One possibility is that the Volante Vision Concept could use a combination of jet and electric power like the shorthaul jet concept recently produced by Rolls-Royce, Airbus and Siemens which uses two electric motors and two turbo fan jet engines, enabling significant reductions in fuel usage and emissions.
According to Aston CEO Andy Palmer, the idea of a ‘flying car’ is part of the brand’s solution to help solve urban transport problems associated with ever increasing traffic numbers.
“Humans have always spent, on average, one hour commuting to and from work. The distance we live from our workplace has been determined by the methods of transportation available.
“We need to look at alternative solutions to reduce congestion, cut pollution and improve mobility,” Andy Palmer, CEO of Aston Martin, said in a statement. “Air travel will be a crucial part in the future of transportation.”
“The concept is intended to demonstrate new technologies, materials and elegant forms – it is a design and R&D study but we are considering routes to production as part of the design,” said Aston Martin spokesman Matt Clarke.
The Volante Vision Concept will enable us to travel further with our hourly commute, meaning we are able to live further away from where we work. Cities will grow and towns that are today too far away from cities to be commutable will become suburban,” he maintains.
Aston’s recent interest in nonautomotive vehicles also includes the AM37 speedboat and the Project Neptune submersible. Like the Vision Volante Concept, they are billed as luxury vehicles and illustrate the brand’s evolution from car maker to luxury brand.
The company joins a growing list of car manufacturers, aviation companies and technology firms designing flying cars.
Kitty Hawk, a start-up backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, recently began taking pre-orders for a single-seat recreational model. Airbus, Uber and jet engine maker Rolls-Royce are working on their own flying vehicles. A Porsche executive told a German magazine that the auto-maker could build a flying car for use in a ridesharing service.
And the price? If it were actually for sale, it probably would run around a cool $9.3 million at current exchange rates. The high-performance luxury cars are best known as the cars of Bond - James Bond. And 007 would seem totally at home in this one.
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