Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: SF Chinese (ID:kexuejiaodian), author: SF

Friends who drive to work or take the bus to work every day must be very anxious if they are caught in a traffic jam. They may all think: if only my car could fly over. Some people may say that this is just a passage in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, how is it possible in our "Muggle" world (equivalent to the real world). Is this really the case?

/ Merlin / tr. by Phil Newell)

Production / editorial Department of Science focus

The wings and propellers provide lift for the Aska A5, and the streamlined shape reduces the air drag on the car in flight. (photo: Aska) in January, American startup Aska launched a flying car, the Aska A5, at CES 2023 in the United States, which really brings magic to reality, helping friends who are stuck in traffic sooner or later to jump through congested cities without having to be afraid of traffic jams.

However, things are far from that simple. If you want cars to fly, you need to solve an important question: Harry Potter's flying cars fly by magic, how do real-life cars fly?

You can take a closer look at the cars around you. They are not suitable for flying. In fact, they are designed to be unable to fly-they can hold on to the ground at high speed without skidding or flying out. Therefore, if you want to make the car fly, you have to change the shape of the car. From the outside, the Aska A5 looks more like a plane on the road than a car, providing the lift needed for the car to fly while reducing the air drag on the car in flight.

Vertical takeoffs and landings, like helicopters, do not require long runways to travel on highways, and there is a practical problem to consider-roads are mostly multi-lane designs, with limited space for each lane. In order not to affect the normal running of vehicles in other lanes of the road, the Aska A5 will retract its wings and fold the propeller when driving on the road, this design ensures that the Aska A5 has higher practicability and applicability.

However, there are still some flaws in the shape design of flying cars-it takes a long enough runway to take off. Just like a plane needs to taxi on the runway for a period of time to take off, this is not suitable in big cities, because there are often traffic jams in big cities, and there is no "long runway" at all. So the Aska A5 uses a vertical take-off and landing design, similar to a helicopter, which eliminates the need for a long runway.

Add program-driven, air range of 400 kilometers you must have seen a quad, why its flight performance is so superior. This is because it has four motors. In other words, power is also important for aircraft such as quad aircraft and flying cars.

The quad has four motors to ensure that it can fly smoothly, so it can be seen that the more power equipment, the more conducive to flight, but more power equipment also means heavier mass. (photo source: Airbunny) when it comes to flying cars, there are currently three types of power-like ordinary cars, they also use fuel, batteries and hybrids. The use of fuel power, the range is guaranteed, and even can fly hundreds of kilometers, but it has the problems of high pollution and noise. Using batteries and hybrids, the mileage is limited, it can fly up to 100 kilometers, and it takes a long time to recharge, but low noise and no pollution are the advantages of this power. The Aska A5 uses battery power, but it uses add-on drive (compared to hybrid cars, the add-on car has only one electric drive system, which drives the wheels directly through the motor, while the engine is only used to drive the generator to charge the battery). The air mileage can reach about 400km. In addition, the four wheels of the flying car have their own power, with a top speed of 113 kilometers per hour on land.

Now, the external range extender used in electric vehicles. (photo source: D0li0) battery power is required for both battery-powered and hybrid power. Now, many flying car manufacturers are using new technologies to improve battery performance as much as possible. With the upgrading of battery technology, the battery's continuous working capacity and energy density (reflecting the battery's ability to store energy) are also increasing. In the future, flying cars may use the latest solid-state batteries, fuel cells and improved lithium-ion batteries.

Although the problem of car flight seems to be easily solved in 2026, we still have a long way to go before flying cars are really fully on the market. Aska A5, for example, is scheduled for mass production in 2026.

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