Flying Car Should Be Practical: Canton Inventor

CANTON, MI — What do Uber, Toyota, Airbus, Google, Skype and Canton resident Sanjay Dhall have in common? All are working on flying cars that may start transforming everything from personal mobility and recreation to business and militaries around the globe as soon as the end of this year.

The idea of a car zipping through the skies is not new. Heck, back in 1917, the Curtiss Autoplane was built, according to a Forbes.com report. More recently, flying cars have been imagined on television with the Baby Boomer cartoon “The Jetsons.” Then in 1985, moviegoers were introduced a flying DeLorean driven by Michael J. Fox in “Back To The Future.”

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The realm of the fictional, however, is quickly moving to the edge of reality. And while the Silicon Valley giants, automakers and aerospace companies race to get the first models off the ground, Dhall just might beat them all. His story starts a long, long way from Canton, or even the United States.

A native of India, Dhall recently told the Detroit Free Press, the throngs of people in his homeland, the constant bumping into them and the lack of space drove him to think about the clouds and soaring through them. So much so, it propelled him to move to America and to become a pilot.

But none of that has quite satisfied Dhall’s need for freedom. That’s what got the idea and the eventual long hours of working on a flying car off the ground. Now, the fruits of his labor rest in a hangar at the Canton-Plymouth Mettetal Airport most of the time.

But Dhall took his yet unnamed flying car to the EAA AirVenture show in Wisconsin on Monday to show it off a little. His ambitions for his invention seem pretty straight forward.

“Fly when you want, drive when you have to. Hundreds of miles of uninterrupted travel,” Dhall wrote on his Detroit Flying Cars website. “And adventure! A more versatile form of personal mobility. Personal because it’s your environment wherever you go. No more planes, trains and automobiles! Start from your home or garage, drive out of your driveway and neighborhood, find the runway for your machine, push a button to stretch your wings, and fly hundreds of miles.”

That’s a theme Dhall and the Big Boys share. Forbes reported that Uber recently launched its ‘Uber Elevate’ program. In a nutshell, the company wants to put flying car transports in the fast lane by coordinating with government agencies, vehicle manufacturers and regulators.

On a smaller scale, a Japanese-based nonprofit is working around the clock. Cartivator aims to perfect its “SkyDrive” concept in time for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, CNN reports. If all goes as planned, a single rider in SkyDrive will light the Olympic flame.

The CNN report describes the craft as having three wheels, has three and four rotors. It also relies on drone technology and can achieve an airspeed of about 62 mph.

Meanwhile, Google co-founder Larry Page is backing Kitty Hawk, a personal aircraft that may hit the market by the end of 2017. Airbus, a French aerospace giant, is working on the eVTOL, which includes “Vahana,” a one-passenger concept that may also be ready by the end of this year, CNN reports.

Still, flying vehicles may hit a little turbulence before reaching blue skies. Sarwant Singh, who penned the Forbes report, writes that flying vehicles must be able to take off and land without the need of a runway, or have “Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) capabilities.” Singh said flying car makers will also have soothe any fears the industry may run into about safety.

Back in Metro Detroit, Dhall doesn’t seem phased by the competition or other concerns. His laser-like focus remains on making the best flying car he can make. Unlike others, his creation is a two-seater and is handcrafted mostly from carbon fiber, the Detroit Free Press reports.

The airplane wings of Dhalls vehicle retract and there’s a propeller at the rear. The vehicle uses an electric hybrid engine. Dhall, who is CEO of Dearborn-based Emergent Systems, even has a failsafe designed into the vehicle in the form of a parachute.

On his Detroit Flying Cars website, he said his designs and hopes for his vehicle are meant for ordinary folks. “We believe that the vehicle must have a practical size and be able to fit comfortably in a typical average American garage,” Dhall wrote. “So the footprint and size must be about the same as a typical mid-sized automobile. We also believe the vehicle must meet the performance characteristics and feel of a typical personal airplane in general aviation.”

Photos courtesy of Sanjay Dhall.