PAL-V Goes on Sale in America

Dean Sigler Announcements, Hybrid Aircraft Leave a Comment

Pal-V is a “flying car” that looks more like a flying motorcycle.  Its three wheels would make it so in many countries.  It flies as a gyrocopter, maintaining a sporty approach to its transition from ground to air.  One reader has suggested dropping the term, “flying car,” even though it has captured reporters’ (and America’s) imaginations for the last hundred years. Dutch Treat? The Dutch creation, under development for close to a decade, looks like a plausible contender for an all-purpose transportation device.  Its compact dimensions mimic a car on the ground, and its clever unfolding to become a gyrocopter allows quick and apparently easy transition from one mode to another.  The company calls the total experience, “FlyDriving.” In “car” mode, its rear suspension geometry allows leaning into the corners with “Dynamic Curve Stabilizer” control, very much like a motorcycle.  The closed two-seat cabin is considerably less raucous, though, than open-air motorcycling.  In aircraft mode, its 87 mph cruising speed …

PAL-V, Carving Its Way into the Sky

Dean Sigler Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation 3 Comments

John van den Heuvel, Science & Technology Advisor (Innovatie Attaché) for the Netherlands Office for Science & Technology (NOST), and working in the Dutch Consulate General in San Francisco, wants people to know about his country’s innovative answer to bland or grating driving experiences.  It may even signal a first wave in freeing up freeways and opening new aerial vistas for commuters. Think of the automobile commercials that show thousands of commuters trapped in grinding bumper-to-bumper traffic, only to be outdone by a spiffily-dressed, cheerful-looking soul who just happens to own the sponsor’s vehicle and to somehow find the magic exit road that takes the driver down open roads and past idyllic views.  We envy the thought, but most of us know it’s a fantasy.  The Dutch government is intervening and showing its ideas to the rest of the world through the PAL-V (personal air and land vehicle) which combines three-wheel ground vehicle and gyrocopter. According to its makers, “The …