Internal combustion engine cars cause traffic congestion and environmental pollution, but flying cars, developed with innovations in mechanical aeronautics, could solve this problem. TerraFugia is the first flying car, opening up the possibility of flying transportation and offering a faster, more efficient way to get around.

A new revolution in flying cars driven by mechanical aeronautics

Throughout human history, the evolution of transportation has played an important role in changing the way we live. Initially, we traveled by horse-drawn carriages and wagons using animal power, but with the advent of the industrial revolution and the internal combustion engine, we completely changed the paradigm of transportation. This shift brought cities closer together and the world evolved into a more connected society. However, internal combustion engines still have their limitations, and there is a need to address environmental concerns and traffic congestion.
The cars we use today are powered by internal combustion engines and can cover hundreds of kilometers in a day. Cars are often referred to as the “flower of mechanical engineering” for their convenience, and we have access to this revolutionary form of transportation thanks to Ford’s mass-production assembly line. However, the popularization of the automobile has come with its own set of problems: the increased number of cars has led to increased traffic congestion, especially during rush hour and holidays, when roads often turn into parking lots. A prime example of this is the jamming of highways every holiday.
Furthermore, due to the nature of internal combustion engine technology, cars continue to burn fuel even when they are stationary, resulting in unnecessary energy consumption, which adds to environmental pollution. All of these issues have led many of us to occasionally fantasize about how great it would be if cars could fly.
Have you seen the movie Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets? After Harry and Ron miss the Hogwarts Express, they take a flying car to school. While this scene may seem like a fantasy far removed from reality, the recently developed flying car “Terrafugia” makes this imagination a reality.

How flying cars work

So how does a car that rolls on the ground become airborne like the Terrafugia? Flight can be explained by two main principles: Newton’s third law and Bernoulli’s principle.
First, Newton’s third law states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Air flowing along the surface of an airplane wing travels at a constant velocity and creates a force that lifts the wing upward. This is similar to how when you pour water into a spoon, the water flows and pushes the spoon away: the air flowing from the underside of the wing lifts the wing upward, causing the object to float in the air.
Next, Bernoulli’s principle, based on the law of conservation of energy, describes the relationship between velocity and pressure: the air passing over the underside of the wing is moving slower than the air passing over the top, so the pressure is greater on the underside. This pressure difference creates lift, the force that pushes the wing upward.
Through these principles, I have proven that it is scientifically possible for a car to fly.

Terrafugia: The flying car of the future

Terrafugia is the world’s first flying car, designed to run on the ground and then fly in the sky. The most innovative part of the vehicle is its folding wings, which take just 30 seconds to unfold. The vehicle is so space-efficient that it can be stored in a person’s garage, and it completed its first successful test flight in 2012. The Terrafugia can carry a payload of about 600 kilograms and can fly at speeds of up to 222 kilometers per hour. By comparison, light airplanes fly at 100 kilometers per hour with a payload of about 115 kilograms. The Terrafugia’s performance is remarkable, especially since it uses unleaded fuel, which is cheaper to operate than jet fuel. It has a range of up to 740 kilometers, which is very impressive.
Terrafugia is simply the first step towards flying cars. In the future, these flying technologies could evolve, and a new form of transportation that combines cars and airplanes could become commonplace. For example, traveling the 400 kilometers from Seoul to Busan during the holidays by car would take more than five hours, but with the TerraFugia, it would take less than two hours at 222 kilometers per hour, and because it travels in a straight line like an airplane, the actual distance traveled would be even shorter.

The role of mechanical aeronautics

Mechanical aerospace engineering plays a central role in the development of these flying cars. The weight of the vehicle, the efficiency of the wings, and its stability in flight all had to be taken into account during the design process of the Terrafugia – a very complex task, but one that was made possible thanks to advances in mechanical aeronautics. Mechanical aeronautics is the creative solution of engineering problems to create new machines. Like flying cars, the transportation of the future could come from innovative ideas in mechanical aeronautics.
The transportation system of the future will be even more innovative than we can imagine, and mechanical aeronautics will be at the center of it. Many scientists and engineers are still working to develop flying cars like the Terrafugia, and the results will change the paradigm of future transportation.