Hovercar

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with Hovercraft.
CGI 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

Curtiss-Wright Model 2500 Air Car, late 1950s

Air-cushion hover cars are hovercraft.

In April 1958,

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 1,600 kilometres (1,000 mi)".[1]

In 1959, Ford displayed a hovercraft concept car, the Ford Levacar Mach I.[2]

In August 1961,

self-driving cars that could speed up to 2,400 km/h (1,500 mph).[3][4][5]

Efforts to build MagLev hover cars

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.[6]

In film and television

In video games

See also

Similar concepts

Hover vehicles

References

  1. ^ "Cars That Fly" Archived 2011-06-12 at the Wayback Machine, Modern Mechanix, October 1958, pp. 92–95
  2. ^
    • Ford, Jason (18 June 2019). "June 1960: Floating a new idea". The Engineer. Archived from the original on June 18, 2019. Retrieved 11 May 2020 – via theengineer.co.uk.
    • "Locomotion" (PDF). The Engineer. June 3, 1960. p. 930. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-05-03. Retrieved 4 May 2022 – via theengineer.co.uk.
  3. ^ https://sirismm.si.edu/EADpdfs/NASM.1994.0013.pdf
  4. ^ https://theoldmotor.com/?p=171542
  5. ^ https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objects/12673
  6. ^ "Ford Scientific Research Laboratory Reaches 50 Year Milestone". Ford Motor Company. Archived from the original on 2013-07-21. Retrieved 2013-09-13. 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.
  7. ^ The Collection Chamber, game collector's blog
  8. ^ Aircar on Steam
  9. ^ MobyGames page, video game database
  10. ^ Official website, unmaintained
  11. ^ MobyGames page, video game database
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