I kust happened to see one of those airboats 9that you see in Florida)-you know, a flat-bottomed boat with and engine driving an airplane propeller on the back. These airboats are VERY fast.
I’ve always wondered if the same principle could be used on a car-instead of an engine driving the wheels, have a propeller on the back. I can think that such a car would be very simple-no transmission needed. plus, it could be very efficient-once you get up to 65 mph, the power needed to maintain speed is probably pretty minimal.
So has anybody ever built such a car? How did it turn out?
Moller International’s skycar is probably as close to what you describe as will ever be made. A car with a single large prop in the back would have some serious stability problems if it ever went airborne. Last I checked, helicopter pilots don’t like it when their tail rotor stops working and the main rotor aligns with the perpendicular.
I don’t think he’s talking about a flying car, just a normal wheeled car propelled by a propeller on the back instead of turning the wheels.
I don’t know of anyone who’s every built one of those. Coupling torque directly to the ground through the wheels is more efficient than using a propelller to get the same acceleration.
Oops, sorry.
Not a car, but W.C. Fields had a rear-propeller driven Golf Cart in “The Big Broadcast of 1938” It was pretty zippy, plus the sides folded down into wings when he decided to take to the air.
Now that I think of it, the Thrust SSC car which broke the sound limit on land would probably be considered an “aircar”. Unless I’m mistaken, it produced its thrust purely through the jet engines rather than trying to drive the wheels at supersonic speed. So at super-high speed, the idea may make sense.
I think the main problem with doing this in a more conventional car would be trying to drive uphill. Airboats don’t need to deal with non-level surfaces, but moving a several-thousand-pound car up an incline with just a fan would be difficult.
There is the Rail Zeppelin, a propeller driven train which achieved a record 143mph in 1931. I don’t think theBennie Railplane got a chance to prove itself, but it looks so cool.
I’m sure I saw a photo of a propeller-driven automobile somewhere, but I can’t seem to find it on the net.
There are hovercraft, too, which can do land or water. No wheels, I’m afraid.