Its flat-four, pushrod configuration looks medieval by car standards, only the cylinder heads are watercooled and the electronic ignition and fuel injection are very simple. It’s powered by an Austrian-built Rotax engine that is now the ubiquitous light-aircraft powerplant. I’ve flown an autogyro before but it was an open tandem-seat model, not a side-by-side closed machine like this one. He’s using an Italian autogyro called the Magni M24 Orion. The Liberty has two engines, both of which are used for flight but only one for driving.Īt Breda, Tielen is training 12 customers, none of whom are already pilots. That said, you need to get the rotors spinning on the ground, so that’s done via a power take off and clutch from the engine. Unlike a helicopter, the rotor blades are not driven by the engine – they spin as the machine is pushed through the air. Essentially, you have rotor blades that provide lift and a pusher propeller at the back for thrust. The most famous autogyro is Little Nellie, the machine that Sean Connery flew in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice. Tucked away in a corner of the hall was the PAL-V Liberty, a Dutch creation that combines autogyro (also known as gyroplane) and three-wheel car to make an intriguing proposition. But there was another, rather unusual flying car at Geneva that caught my eye. It’s like a giant drone that picks up a passenger pod, flies it around and then can place it back on a set of wheels so that it can drive around as a car. The fantasy of the flying car is almost as old as flight itself and, throughout the history of aviation, eccentrics, dreamers and shed engineers have tried to turn the dream into reality.Īudi, Airbus and Italdesign are jointly working on an alternative take on the flying car. At the other end, you reverse the process and drive to where you want to go. It’s simple: drive to the airfield, unfold the wings and take off. Autocar writers' cars of 2022: Dacia Jogger.Last hurrah: The curious case of the Studebaker Golden Hawk.Enjoy 43% off when you subscribe to Autocar.What is it like learning to drive in 2023?.
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