We’ve seen a range of hovercrafts, but how about one that can fly and to top it with a turbine? Pairs Airshow has been a platform wherein the world has witnessed novelties in aviation every passing year. And this time grabbing our eyes is a ducted-fan flying hovercar that Israeli engineers are developing. Termed the Urban Aero Mule “fancraft,” it is an unmanned hovercraft prototype driven by a turbine that is expected to be resurrected within two months.
The ducted fancraft will be included with arrays of control vanes over and below the fans of the craft, so that it is made to be more stable than the ones previously tried and thereby be better off in carrying heavy loads easily.
It is difficult to get military and mainstream aeronautics interested in concepts like these, but with its potentials to automatically swivel to redirect the airflow, dodge buildings and obstacles in flight, take off and land vertically without the need to tilt its thrust discs, we see fancraft posing some serious contention if the Israeli’s can actually pull this one off. A smaller electrically-driven model has been test flied successfully and the technology is therefore genuine enough to make big, how big and true only time will tell.
Via: TheRegister
