Real flying cars are actually zooming into the realm of reality, but that’s not stopping dreamers from coming up with some pretty outrageous and far less possible designs. The Skylys Project from Mix Aerospace is an electric vehicle that combines the best attributes of an electric car, a helicopter, and an airplane.

Skylys is a VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) vehicle, capable of taking off from a stationary position just like a helicopter. It’s hard to tell from the scant information on the company’s website, but in the concept renderings the Skylys seems to have two versions: a vehicle with permanent multi-directional propellers and one that features separate car and wing modules.

The second version of the car allows you to drive around on four wheels in a vehicle small enough to navigate tight city streets. Then, when you need to travel a long distance or just want to circumvent ground traffic, you back the car up into the wing assembly which attaches securely, turning your car into a flying machine.

Mix Aerospace believes that the first viable uses for the Skylys will be emergency responders like ambulances and police officers. But the ultimate goal would be to get the cars into the driveways of regular people at some point. Right now Mix is still trying to get funding to get their company off of the ground and take the Skylys from a concept to a working prototype, which they believe could happen around 2018.

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In certain areas of the world, the ground transport infrastructure is so poor (or nonexistent) that getting goods to people who need them is as good as impossible. UK-based company 4X4 Aviation sees a way to correct that problem with the monster of a cargo plane they call the VV-Plane. The VV (or Versatile Vehicle) Plane features 16 tilting electric fans that allow for vertical take-off and landing, eliminating the need for airports and runways.

According to the company, the unusual plane would greatly reduce the costs associated with moving goods, making it possible to deliver food, supplies, and equipment to even the most remote places which are unreachable by roads. The cost to weight ratio would be lower even than that of trucks, making the VV-Plane a viable alternative for areas that do have solid existing road infrastructures.

The plane’s four groups of four electrically-powered fans are powered by an integrated combustion engine generator which sends energy to an on-board storage system. The fans are pointed down during take-off to provide lift, then pointed backward while in flight for forward thrust. While similar tilting fan systems require a lot of energy and heavy equipment, 4X4 Aviation say that they’ve developed a new system to make the entire outfit affordable.

The VV-Plane is equipped to carry up to 33 tons of cargo and can even carry a standard cargo container. This is a crucial point because the plane could pick up the containers at sea ports and move them inland easier and for a lower cost than trucks could. The company is seeking investors to help develop their cost- and energy-efficient technology, so there’s no word yet on when we might start seeing VV-Planes hauling our cargo through the sky.

The post Green VTOL Drone Could Take Freight Transport to the Sky first appeared on Gajitz.