"Take out the car key, open the door remotely, and get into the car to start the car. At this time, two wings pop up on both sides of the car. As the engines suspended on both sides start slowly, the car turns into a small airplane, quickly moving from the ground. Drive to the sky..."
Once upon a time, "flying cars" were frequent visitors in many sci-fi movies and cartoons. With flexible take-off and landing and strong power, flying cars can always help the protagonist to complete various difficult tasks.
Nowadays, with the rapid development of science and technology, the "flying car" has gradually entered the real world from the movie screen, and has become a new outlet for many technology companies.
On June 28th, the dual-mode AirCar flying car developed by Klein Vision in Slovakia flew from Nitra Airport in Slovakia to Bratislava Airport. The flight lasted 35 minutes. The "flying car" successfully tested again and triggered people. s concern.
Some analysts pointed out that this flight opened up a new era of dual transportation. It opened up a new transportation category and returned the freedom that was originally a car to individuals.
"The increasingly congested urban roads and the long and chaotic traffic conditions have greatly compromised the efficiency of cars." Wilson analyst Xu Hong said bluntly, "In this case, ground traffic extends upward and downward from the road surface and radiates It has become a development trend, with the subway going down and flying cars going up."
As Xu Hong said, "If the'new four modernizations' of automobiles determine the direction of travel in the next 10 years, flying cars may become a hot development outlet in the travel field in the next 30 years or even longer."
How far is the "air traffic era" from us
"In the past 100 years, the practical exploration of flying cars has mainly occurred in the United States. Through the combination of cars and airplanes, people designed flying cars that have both ground driving and air flight functions. Although flying cars with land and air amphibious functions are currently difficult to integrate The ground transportation system, but with the development of technology and products, it should be able to make important contributions in the fields of emergency rescue and national defense and military." Zhang Yangjun, executive deputy director and professor of the State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy, Tsinghua University, is in flying car research Pointed out in the paper on development and key technologies.
With the rise of the concept of urban air traffic, the connotation of the flying car concept has expanded to be used to solve the problem of urban traffic congestion, or to be used for urban air traffic.
"The flying car we often talk about now is an electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft with only air-flight functions. It has become a key area for all countries in the world." Zhang Yangjun said.
In fact, under the stimulus of favorable policies in various countries, market demand is also increasing simultaneously.
Flying cars have evolved from the small-scale practice of the initial personal dreamers to the focus of the capital market and emerging technology companies, and it is entering a new stage.
In a research report on "Urban Air Traffic-The Rise of a New Mode of Transportation" released by Roland Berger in November 2018, it is predicted that by 2025, 3000 flying cars will be put into use, and then will increase exponentially; In 2050, nearly 100,000 flying cars will be used for air taxis, airport shuttles and intercity flight services worldwide.
Morgan Stanley also released a blue book, estimating that the global urban air transportation industry will reach 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars in 2040.
As a new type of transportation for urban air traffic and future travel, flying cars are increasingly being valued by the aviation and automotive fields, and have become an important development trend in the cross-border integration of aviation and automotive technology and industry.
"Electric flying cars that highlight the advantages of flight modes and have vertical take-off and landing functions have become the mainstream of the research and development of flying cars at home and abroad. Boeing, Airbus, Bell, Embraer, AVIC and other traditional aviation companies have deployed electric flying cars. The development of electric vehicles. The development of electric vehicles has laid a good technical and industrial foundation for electric aviation.” Zhang Yangjun said
Some analysts pointed out that flying cars are also considered to be the inevitable development of automotive technology after electrification and intelligence. At present, Geely, Audi, Hyundai, Toyota, Tesla and other auto companies have also joined the ranks of flying car research and development.
In fact, the development of flying cars will not only bring a better era of smart travel to mankind, but will also have a significant impact on the future society, economy, safety and environment.
Take the tourism field as an example. Flying cars can provide air travel services in designated places such as scenic spots and amusement parks. Tourists can take a flying car to visit previously difficult or inaccessible areas from a new perspective, such as deep valleys, Peaks, jungles, deserted islands, waterfalls, etc.
It is understood that in addition to manned travel, the most likely landing scenario for flying cars in the near future is transportation, especially in areas with inconvenient ground transportation, such as offshore islands that are not too far away, mountainous areas, etc., without land transportation conditions or ground transportation infrastructure. In areas with poor facilities, the use of flying cars to achieve logistics and transportation has obvious advantages.
"At present, the domestic Shanghai Jinshan area is carrying out the demonstration operation of intelligent air logistics within the scope of this kind of maritime airspace. One scenario is to quickly transport high-quality aquatic products from offshore islands to Jinshan District, and then arrive in the urban area by land transportation." Zhang Yangjun said .
How to seize new outlets for industrial development
There is no doubt that flying cars, as a new type of transportation for urban air traffic and future smart travel, will bring people a better era of smart travel, and will also re-shuffle the market in the travel industry.
"For any new field, the'first comer' has a certain natural advantage. This advantage is initially technical, then it will be transformed into the product and the market, and finally into a large number of orders and a good market reputation. Therefore, how to seize the new frontier for the development of the flying car industry is the most important issue at the moment." Xu Hong analyzed.
And Zhang Lei is a race against time to seize a member of the team of flying cars.
As the co-founder and CEO of Beijing Weihang Technology Company, Zhang Lei has set his sights on the field of flying cars since 2016.
"My undergraduate and graduate students are both studying in the Department of Automotive Engineering of Tsinghua University. At that time, through discussions with teachers and classmates of the research group, combined with the analysis of market development trends and the analysis of consumer demand, we predicted the future development of the transportation field. From the era of electric smart cars for ground transportation, to the era of flying cars that realize three-dimensional travel, this also makes me become attached to flying cars."
However, at that time in China, there were few companies and scientific research institutions that developed flying car-related technologies. Without previous experience to learn from, they could only explore in the unknown. In order to determine the direction of development, Zhang Lei looked for a lot of foreign information After nearly a year of study and research on the information of flying cars, Zhang Lei has a clearer cognition and understanding.
"As a new thing, flying cars have achieved a breakthrough from 0 to 1, and making flying cars fly is the focus of attention of all companies. And we believe that after starting from nothing, the core of future product competition will be from the best to the best." Zhang Lei The analysis said, "The three points of carrying more, flying far, and low noise will become the key factors for judging the performance of flying cars in the future, and the power propulsion system is the key card neck technology."
Zhang Lei said bluntly, "Currently, all flying cars under test use rotary wing propulsion. Rotary wing propulsion basically solves the problem of flying cars flying from 0 to 1. The ducted fan has small size, high thrust, low noise and good safety. The advantage is that it is a propulsion method that is more suitable for urban three-dimensional traffic application scenarios, and it is a propulsion method that allows flying cars to go from good to good."
In order to solve the key problem of "excellence", Zhang Lei and his colleagues set their sights on the research and development of large-thrust, high-efficiency, low-noise electric ducted fan propulsion technology.
According to Zhang Lei, Weihang Technology has conducted systematic research on the intelligent propulsion technology of electric ducted fans and established a core technology threshold.
Established the design theory and method of high-pass flow ducted fan, proposed the integrated coupling design model of ducted fan motor, and the intelligent control strategy to improve the safe take-off and landing ability of flying vehicles under the influence of ground effect. Road fan flying cars are safer during vertical take-off and landing. At the same time, with the support of the integrated fan motor design, the ducted fan propulsion system solves the problem of heavy motor weight and further improves the endurance and flight efficiency.
However, technological innovation is not an easy task. Zhang Lei and his colleagues have encountered many problems in the research and development process of ducted fan technology.
"For example, how to solve the technical problem of the large weight of the motor for ducted fans? There is no international experience to learn from. We have jumped out of conventional thinking and solved independently. The low-speed and high-torque characteristics of ducted fans make the conventional selection match. The weight of the motor is very heavy, which weakens the advantage of ducted fans compared to rotor technology. The problem of weight reduction has plagued us for a long time. Later, we considered the fan and motor as a whole, through the method of coupling design and collaborative optimization, and finally In order to solve this problem, the technical path was pointed out." Zhang Lei recalled.
Zhang Lei told reporters that although the process of independent research and development and exploration is sometimes difficult, it is also very training people: "In the process of research, we boldly break the boundaries of disciplines and brainstorm various ideas. These results are valuable for our future research and development. wealth."
It is precisely with perseverance and bold attitude to verify that Zhang Lei and his colleagues have made great progress in the development of key technologies and scenarios for flying cars.
"At the end of this year, we will conduct flight tests on our 600kg full-scale flying platform for specific scenarios. If it goes well, it will begin industrialization next year and gradually enter everyone's lives." Zhang Lei said.
"Developing flying cars and breaking through key technological bottlenecks will not only lay a technical and platform foundation for the development of urban air transportation, but will also effectively promote technological breakthroughs and innovations in the industrial chain of power batteries, fuel cells, new lightweight materials and intelligent driving, and enhance The new round of scientific and technological revolution and the ability to lead the industry change have important strategic significance for my country to achieve the goal of a strong transportation country, especially the development of the electric aviation strategy of emerging industries." Xu Hong said bluntly.
Zhang Yangjun suggested building a technological innovation system for flying cars that cross-border integration of automobiles and aviation, and promoting demonstration applications of flying cars in urban air traffic and emergency rescue, as a breakthrough and key task for the development of flying cars in my country in the near future.
"I speculate that ground vehicle transportation will begin the process of fusion with urban intelligent air transportation after entering the era of smart cars around 2030." Zhang Yangjun told reporters, "It is estimated that by 2050, the development of flying cars will change from public transportation. The field enters the field of private transportation. Land-air amphibious intelligent flying cars will open up popular applications, and mankind will usher in the future era of smart travel in which ground-based intelligent transportation and urban air transportation are integrated."
China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily reporter Zhang Zhenqi Source: China Youth Daily