The concept of a flying car is not absurd anymore, given the advancement in technology today. Although there are some flying cars at the moment, it hasn’t stopped experts from creating conceptualised designs of what the future may hold. One such example is the ambitious concept creation of a hypercar in a jet design created by Greg Brown, a California-based designer.
Photo Courtesy: Greg Brown
Brown spent his days flying F-18s for the U.S. Navy and later the Boeing 777s for United. While the Fusion JC7 was only recently unveiled, Brown revealed that he had been working on the design for nearly 20 years. Back then he called it Firenze Lanciare changed it to Fusion JC7 which was much easier to pronounce.
At 24 feet, 8 inches long, the current design represents what can only be described as a stretched-out Bugatti with wings hidden under the body of the vehicle when in road mode. This stretch is, however, trimmed off a few inches when the rear stabilizer folds once the vehicle is parked.
Photo Courtesy: Greg Brown
Fast on the ground and fully capable in the air, the Fusion is a traditional concept car with Bugatti overtones rather than a vertical takeoff and landing flying car.
When on the road, the car is fully electric with twin Tesla motors powered by LG batteries. These give the vehicle a total of 1,000 hp and a full 920 pounds of torque allowing the JC7 to go from 0 to 100kmph in about 4 seconds and could reach 240kms of autonomy in 100% electric mode.
Photo Courtesy: Greg Brown
In the air, the jet can generate 2,000 pounds of thrust from two Williams FJ-33 engines weighing 145 kilograms each which would allow it to reach 225 kilometres per hour in just 6 seconds. The cruising speed, Brown estimates, could reach 837 km per hour; a speed which is fairly similar to that of any current commercial aeroplane. At that rate, the flying car can travel 750 miles by air with a full 300-gallon fuel tank.
Photo Courtesy: Greg Brown
The jet car is currently with Corvid Technologies which is conducting Computational Fluid Dynamics (CDF) to test the vehicle’s behaviour in the aircraft mode and determine its pitch constraints and drag coefficient. Once testing is complete, Brown anticipates the prototype to cost somewhere around US $20 million to develop and US $2.5 million per unit once it goes into production.
