Games Gadgets n Technology

The flying car of science fiction may be reality by 2010. An Israeli company envisions its creation – the X-Hawk – saving thousands of lives in urban rescue operations

Rafi Yoeli has a solution to saving people from burning high-rises, flooded cities or rescuing soldiers trapped behind enemy lines: A flying car.
Yoeli already has gotten a rudimentary vehicle off the ground – about three feet – and hopes to see a marketable version of his X-Hawk flying car by 2010.
Although his dream might seem farfetched, US-based Bell Helicopters is taking a serious look, teaming with Yoeli’s privately held Urban Aeronautics to explore X-Hawk’s potential.
Think of the people trapped in the World Trade Centre. Think of ground patrols in Iraq blown up by roadside bombs. Think of citizens stranded in 26 July Mumbai floods.
X-Hawk and its smaller version, Mule, might one day offer the same capabilities as helicopters, but without the serious operating limitations – like exposed rotors – that helicopters face in urban terrain.
As of now, there isn’t any aircraft that can operate optimally in urban environments. Yoeli is trying to address that need by designing a kind of vehicle that can get close to buildings and skyscrapers, and provide some type of relief for people stranded in them.

THE MACHINE

X-Hawk – currently just a full-size mould in Urban Aeronautics’ headquarters in the Israeli town of Yavne – looks like a futuristic space car, with its streamlined design, two fans rising from the rear and cockpit-style driver’s seat.
But Yoeli envisions X-Hawk and Mule as more of a truck, pulling up to dangerous combat or terror arenas to ferry in personnel and supplies and ferry out people at risk. Like a similarly sized helicopter, X-Hawk will be able to take-off vertically, fly up to 155 miles an hour and as high as 12,000 feet and remain aloft about two hours, Urban Aeronautics says.
But encased fans will replace the exposed rotors that keep helicopters from manoeuvring effectively in urban areas or dense natural terrain. And a patented system of vanes is designed to afford the vehicle greater stability. Urban Aeronautics says vehicles will be able to sidle right up to a building.
“The X-Hawk also will be quieter, offering a stealth advantage over helicopters,” said Janina Frankel-Yoeli, the company’s vice president for marketing. “But because the rotor diameter is smaller, the new vehicle will use about 50 per cent more fuel.” Rafi Yoeli expects an unmanned Mule prototype to be flying in two or three years and in production within five. He projects a manned X-Hawk will first hover in 2009 and hit the market within eight years.

THE MAN

The 55-year-old designer says he’s been fascinated by flight since childhood and got into the flying car business after two years at Boeing, five at Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd and 14 at a company he co-founded to develop unmanned airborne vehicles and helicopter applications. His initial fantasy was a flying sports car. But because of all the regulatory issues that would have to be resolved before masses of commuters could start whooshing through the sky, he tucked that dream aside to develop something that could hit the market earlier. The company headquarters are dominated by a large, white-domed flight simulator and the proof-of-concept vehicle that Yoeli says he built in his second-floor living room so he could spend more time with his family. What’s compelled Yoeli on this project is the urge “to get up vertically,” without needing a runway or a rotating mechanism overhead. “You sit in a traffic jam, and everyone gets this urge: I want to get up now, and over this,” he said. “You need a certain kind of machine. I think X-Hawk can do it.” AP