The Ulitmate dinghy Mavarick flying car

[thataway]

The only problem is how to store it aboard--but I suspect that with the ingenuity of our members that could be solved:
http://tinyurl.com/2925w7q

This is basically a dune buggy, which will go up to 90 mph on land, can be fitted with pontoons and skiis, and will fly at 40 mph using a parachute type of foil. Not only is the vehicle amazing, but the story of the man who invented it--and his purpose in life is as amazing. His father was a missionary in Equador, who was killed by a tribe of Indians. His mother and other family members remained in country and did missionary work with this same tribe. The inventor wants to be able to bring these vehicles to the back woods areas in an affordiable fashion for humantarian purposes.
I suspect that you could build a catamaran barge to tow behind your Tom Cat...for this--and then use that barge for expansion of the boat's usefulness when you arrive....as well as have the flying car!

If you have already seen this I appologize--I had not seen it before.

[JamesTXSD]

OK, I can see I haven't been thinking big enough... let's mount an engine on top of the CD-25, put on a set of folding wings... an L-Dory (the L is for Lake as in: Lake Amphibian). I always liked the look of that Lake; it just needed a real cabin like the C-Dory.

Talk about getting up on plane.

[journey on]

Bob, that was wonderful. I'd love to see that in real life. How does he launch the Regallo wing? And then take off?

Wow

Boris

[TyBoo]

That is too cool. I want it.

[thataway]

http://mavericklsa.com/ is the web site. There is a 22 foot collapsable vertical spar which fits just forward and outside of the driver, and holds up the ram foil wing until the forward speed of the craft is enough to keep the wing cells inflated. Since the air speed is only 40 mph the drag of the spar is not much, and it is left in place to facilitate landings and take offs. (the take off or landing distance is 150 feet). As a "car" it goes 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds--not many race cars that can do that..(2011Ferrari 599 GTO does the 0-60 in 3.4 seconds and has a V 12 with 671 hp)

The unit weight is about 800 lbs--up to 1000 lbs "fully featured"--and the load carrying capacity as a light sport aircraft (Has been FAA certified) is from slighty over 300 to 500 lbs--in extremes it is a bit more. I don't know how much weight pontoons add (but it may not be much, since the wheels and perhaps part of the running gear is removed). There are various configurations, including land only and air only. (might be water/air only too).

Since the engine is 170 hp--to get a C Dory Tom Cat in the air, using the same technique--I suspect you would have to have 1500 hp and a foil many times this size--don't thing that is going to happen.....But an interesting thought! --how about an ultra light C Dory Cat with foil?

I don't know how much of a load the Tom Cat can tow when planing, but I have towed a 380 lb boat and it does not seem as if it is there....so I suspect that with the right pontoon setup--you could tow this aerocar planing behind the Tom Cat....Land Sea and air!

Oh yeah--$84,000 for the first ones, with a $5,000 early bird discount.. Plan to be in production by Oshkosh 2011.

[rogerbum]

Cool - I'd rather have this as my dinghy. It's "only" $21,000 and a good bit lighter than the flying car. For $3500 you can get a trike frame to convert it to a conventional ultralight.

[c-ness]

Wow, these would be just too much fun. But, with my skill level, it wouldn't last long.

[Captains Cat]

[Captains Cat]

[thataway]

I saw one of the delta wing inflatables on a drive down to Fort Walton Beach this morning. Not sure if you can put this rig on any inflatable or not--the one I saw was a RIB about 10 feet long. It did not look as if you could put an outboard on the transom with the flying rig in place. It also had two seats as the one in the photo.

I have also seen ultra light anphibians, which just have floats, no hull.

Also as a Light Sport Airplane, I believe that you have to have a higher class lisense for a two person plane, than a single person plane. I also understand that these are tricky to fly. We had 5 ultralight amphibians on our street--we are down to two currently. One crashed last year with some relitatively serious injuries. It was very close to death for one passanger who was not able to get out of her safety harness, and the husband already had a cervical spine injury from the crash, and aspirated sea water in his successful rescue attempts. All of the pilots on our street are ex military (mostly navy carrier) pilots, so they are not lacking in aviation skills, yet all of them have crashed the ultralights at one time or another.

It is possible that the parachute foil is a safer type of wing (?).

[hardee]

That is one cool air buggy. Maybe I can fly something yet. What a kick, and I like his motovation.

Harvey
SleepyC