Terrafugia-Aircar

Last crawled date: 1 year, 11 months ago

Hello all!, this is my proposal for Terrafugia contest.
There is a lot to talk about planes and cars but the essential for now is how a concept can manage to use all the best things from both worlds: the world of cars and the words of aeronautics, both with a specific culture. The concept Terafugia Aircar try to make justice in that, it brings shapes close to the existing common accepted culture but in the same time push a little further what in the near future will be commonly accepted as an Aircar, Terrafugia Aircar.

The concept keep as base actual Terrafugia sugested layout remodeling the surfaces to obtain the key point for what a customer would want to own an Terrafugia Aircar:

-The price and the value
The price asked for the Terrafugia Aircar probably place the acquisition in super car or UL airplane league as comparison. The super car is a choice who give a lot of satisfaction to the owner like: brand association, g-forces and dynamic feedback like no other type of cars, recreational activities (track days). The UL airplane will give to the owner a way to experience flight every weekend or daytime commuting for those experienced, it can be an entry to a special reality where the freedom is priceless....especially after you begin to know the feeling.

-The real chalenges:
Terrafugia Aircar suppose to combine the best from aero and road worlds, but this is the holy grail for which many are after.

Here is how i see that translated into the concept:
The main concerns are regarding safety, not only for the occupants but for the all exposed parts.
Since a car can run even if some parts are bumped or not in such a great shape this is not the case for an Aircar.
The Terrafugia Aircar offer deform-able zones to all its sides for road traffic, those zones whits all the structure offer safety similar to five stars EuroNCAP. The 10km/h impact have no influence over the specific parts and the Aircar is free to run without intervention. The splits of the body offer easy replacement of parts in case of damage, this is why there is some resemblance with that we would normally call front and rear bumper or sides protection. The approval as a street car is helped by some other simple things like a correct nr. plates placement or the car like visibility and ergonomics. Of course all car like elements should not influence aerodynamics, the shape should be close to ideal and for that i choose the model of a tear shape which is fully respected on the median section until reach the rear fan. All the front is shaped like an intersection of a pointed aircraft nose with a lower car front. The shape evolves like a shark head being wider at the base and shrinking to vertical, ending up to a tail in the back. The back tail give the possibility to enforce the roof and why not, to have an extra control surface adding some tremendous style, for sure the guys with shark car antenna will envy that.
The rear fan concept is inspired by jets who have sides air inlets, this way will collect and push a lot of the air stream in to the fan. Ok this can produce drag on road driving but here is a crazy thought. In towns the speed is lower so everything is ok especially with all video electronics and sensors the car should use, i mean the latest trends like self parking or emergency stop. If possible the Aerocar should use electric propulsion only. The problems begins on highway, and here i refer to Autobahn where Terrafugia Aircars should offer an huge performance because its powerful engines. The proposal is to use the ultimate type of wheels like an evolved Twell and after 80 km/h the rear fan and control surfaces to be used in conjunction with the electronics for clear(compensate) the drag and why not for an additional thrust, of course this must be safer for the back cars, this is why the flow exhousted it suppose not to be much higher than the usual.. The biggest problem for the highway use is the side winds and for that the control surfaces(flaps..etc) with the help of rear fan should give an tremendous advantage controlling automatically not only the countermeasures for left and right forces but for general ground pressure also. This way i would like to believe that the Terrafugia Aircar equals super-cars offering speeds over 300 kph in complete safety and no thrills control. The front cooling openings revolves the paradox of the air needed for the flight and for the road use, for the roads they stay opened and for flight inlets flaps can close progressively, this way the air will not build pressure inside the compartment and will help aerodynamics.

-The styling
This suppose to be a separate chapter but it isn't, the function and the styling is too interconnected, even like that there is always a feel when you look to a creation and that can be controlled. I try to drive the aesthetics of Terrafugia Aircar to resemble to car and plane but to be also an natural evolution of the two. The owner should feel really special driving or piloting his Terrafugia Aircar, this is why i use some distinctive shapes to give contemporary fresh feel all this just to connect the user conciseness with the global result who make appeal to the simplified and highly controlled minimalism and that give the actual futuristic feel. The futurist shapes melts in very conventional car industry like approach. The car industry styling norm is to have big wheels and build the car around this wheels, the designers have special proportion measured by the how many wheels " enters" to the length of car...so to have a car with the hidden wheels is almost crazy this days. This is why i loved to challenge that, and i choose a concept "'car hovering over the turbine wheels"', it is indeed and a functional side of the turbines in sucking air from around brakes. I also suggest with the front fenders an huge wheel who hide inside but also an tear drop who wait for the air to flow. The way fender splits and connects with the front is made with the intention to show "sharky" front section pointed to offer lift. The "engine hood" give the chance to change the curvatures,for the styling this is the chance to have some non aero harmful edges...so much needed fo a fresh contemporary design. It is hard to have an plane with a car front grille and not to be hilarious but the airplane like nose proposed offer an wide air inlet with a very neutral styling chrome element. The headlights are angled but there are cut on the curvature of the surface, it must look like an sophisticated ''navigation instrument'' then a car headlight, being so geometrically straight cut it will not resemble with an usual car headlight. The back of the Terrafugia Aircar ofers an complete show being more free from usual car styling, but even here there must be some clasic elements to resemble bumper or space for nr plate. The concept of the back is build around the fan housing which is dominant an treated as an space age "antigravity generator''. The below ''muscle pad'' which have an very round side shapes offers not only housing for the pods and rear wheels but also contribute to the general stability, conducting the flow of the air to the narrowed rear side just like an extra wing. At the end of that the two engine exhaust are expressed in the best possible way. Rear stop lights accentuate the flowing shape of the fender and using a deep cut through the body the elements of lighting can be enclosed behind the glass with the resemblance mine quartz Krystals giving an optimistic Eco tone.
The styling of the ''airplane mode'' is given by the correct aerodynamics approach, where all the elements give the feeling that they are made for flight. Finally the overall creation seem to feel good in the air, in big cities and also on highways being more an civilized attraction then an awkward object.

To offer the ultimate freedom for as many as possible would be a very noble achievement.

Thank you, Good luck all!