Can you build your own flying car?
survey says....
I may have mentioned this before, but I once built a home made podracer with some ducted fans, a leaf blower and a piece of a plywood. It actually moved (slowly)Some day I will unarchive an image of that from my dusty old backup hard drives. Now, if I can do something like that, I’m sure there are other, smarter people that can do much better.
I absolutely love DIY stuff, and after doing some brief digging, I found that yes, yes, many have in fact built home made flying cars.
The dudes at Upwards Aero designed, built and tested this personal electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft in just 8 months. While this is a very early tech demonstrator, it got them one step closer to their mission: redefining the joy of flight while minimizing the environmental impact of recreational aviation.
So the dream is definitely alive, especially in young people. We’re seeing some wacky and outrageous designs that actually fly. I hope these spirited youths go on to start their own flying car and evtol companies so that we can get closer to our dreams of commuting to work in the air instead of on the road.
So maybe you are thinking - ok, I’d like to give this a shot. How much would it cost? I’m going to estimate, based on what I know about brushless motors, RC equipment, batteries, pipes, plywood, etc.
Here’s a very rough breakdown:
8 brushless motors ($300 each)
RC controller with transmitter and receiver ($300)
8 Speed Controllers that can handle big motors ($100 each)
Pipes, metal pieces, etc ($500)
Batteries (not sure how many would actually be needed but lets say 8) $800
Propellers or rotors ($150)
Miscellaneous parts like bolts, nuts, drill bits, etc ($200)
Charger ($100)
Seat ($50 or less)
Ok this breaks down to about $5000, which is actually what was in my head when I started thinking about it. I would say, give or take a thousand dollars from that number and you could build a cheap, home made flying car.
So - with a bit of elbow grease and ingenuity, yes, you can make your own flying car at home.