Login
Login

Hovercar

{{Short description|Unrealized concept of a flying personal vehicle}}

File:Tesla Maglev hover car.png mockup of a hypothetical maglev hover car (based on the Tesla Model X)]]

A hover car is a personal vehicle that flies at a constant altitude of up to one yard (three feet) above the ground and used for personal transportation in the same way a modern automobile is employed. The concept usually appears in science fiction.

In science fiction, it is capable of elevating itself some distance from the ground through some repulsion technology, presumably exploiting some short range anti-gravity principle so as to eliminate most friction forces which act against conventional vehicles. Other works feature vehicles that hover by having magnetic plates lined along roads, operating in a similar principle to maglev. The capability of hovering above the ground eliminates the need for tires, and unlike an air-cushion vehicle, it does not produce a dust cloud.

The closest devices are the hovercraft, which elevates itself above a water or level hard surface using a cushion of air retained by a flexible skirt, and the hovertrain, which is a type of high-speed train that replaces conventional steel wheels with hovercraft lift pads, and the conventional railway bed with a paved road-like surface, known as the "track" or "guideway".

Efforts to build air-cushion hover cars

File:Curtis-wright-gem-2500.jpg

Air-cushion hover cars are hovercraft.

In April 1958, Ford engineers demonstrated the Glide-air, a {{convert|3|ft|m|0|adj=mid|spell=on|disp=flip}} model of a wheelless vehicle that speeds on a thin film of air only 76.2 μm ({{frac|3|1000}} of an inch) above its table top roadbed. An article in Modern Mechanix quoted Andrew A. Kucher, Ford's vice president in charge of Engineering and Research noting "We look upon Glide-air as a new form of high-speed land transportation, probably in the field of rail surface travel, for fast trips of distances of up to about {{convert|1000|mi|km|disp=flip}}".[http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2009/07/06/cars-that-fly/ "Cars That Fly"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110612122901/http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2009/07/06/cars-that-fly/ |date=2011-06-12 }}, Modern Mechanix, October 1958, pp. 92–95

In 1959, Ford displayed a hovercraft concept car, the Ford Levacar Mach I.

  • {{cite news |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190618154305/https://www.theengineer.co.uk/floating-new-idea/ |archive-date=June 18, 2019 |url= https://www.theengineer.co.uk/floating-new-idea/| title= June 1960: Floating a new idea| first= Jason| last= Ford |date= 18 June 2019 | work= The Engineer | via= theengineer.co.uk | access-date= 11 May 2020}}
  • {{cite news |title=Locomotion |url=https://s3-eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/centaur-wp/theengineer/prod/content/uploads/2019/06/18150539/Page-45-Image-on-930.pdf | work= The Engineer | via= theengineer.co.uk |access-date=4 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220503235645/https://s3-eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/centaur-wp/theengineer/prod/content/uploads/2019/06/18150539/Page-45-Image-on-930.pdf |archive-date=2022-05-03 |page=930 |date=June 3, 1960}}

In August 1961, Popular Science reported on the Aeromobile 35B, an air-cushion vehicle (ACV) that was invented by William Bertelsen and was envisioned to revolutionise the transportation system, with personal hovering self-driving cars that could speed up to {{convert|1500|mph|km/h|abbr=on|disp=flip}}.https://sirismm.si.edu/EADpdfs/NASM.1994.0013.pdfhttps://theoldmotor.com/?p=171542https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objects/12673

Efforts to build maglev hover cars

Ford also displayed a concept car, LEVICAR. It was a one-person, small in a modern sense, car propelled by maglev. The car was designed to be levitated by magnets, and was intended to be developed for high-speed transportation systems. The Levicar was very light and when raised off its guide rail by the magnetic it only required a blower in the back to propel it. A working model was actually built. While technically a success, the whole project was dropped due to financial constraints.{{cite web|url=http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id%3D7856 |website=Ford Motor Company |title=Ford Scientific Research Laboratory Reaches 50 Year Milestone |access-date=2013-09-13 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130721112514/http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=7856 |archive-date=2013-07-21 |quote=For example, LEVICAR, a vehicle levitated by magnets, was developed for high-speed transportation systems. The LEVICAR only required a blower in the back to propel it, and a working model was actually built. Although the LEVICAR program was dropped for economic reasons, it was technically successful.}}

In popular culture

=In comics=

=In film and television=

=In literature=

=In video games=

See also

=Similar concepts=

=Hover vehicles=

References

{{Reflist}}

Car