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Hovercar
Unrealized concept of a flying personal vehicle From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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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".
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Efforts to build air-cushion hover cars
Air-cushion hover cars are hovercraft.
In April 1958, Ford engineers demonstrated the Glide-air, a one-metre (three-foot) model of a wheelless vehicle that speeds on a thin film of air only 76.2 μm (3⁄1000 of an inch) above its table top roadbed. An article in 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, Popular Science reported on the Aeromobile 35B, an air-cushion vehicle (ACV) that was invented by William Bertelsen and was envisioned to revolutionise the transportation system, with personal hovering self-driving cars that could speed up to 2,400 km/h (1,500 mph).[3][4][5]
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In popular culture
In comics
In film and television
- The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
- A.I. Artificial Intelligence
- Altered Carbon
- Back to the Future Part II
- Batman Beyond (including the Batmobile)
- Blade Runner (as spinners)
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps
- The Fifth Element
- Futurama
- Grand Theft Auto Online
- Hello Tomorrow!
- I, Robot
- The Jetsons
- Immortal (unique type of hovercar, which is powered by overhead wires)
- Lilo & Stitch
- Minority Report
- Space Precinct (as hoppers)
- Phineas and Ferb
- Robot Jox
- Stand by Me Doraemon
- Star Trek (as desert flyers and skimmers; the first being Vulcan hovercars)
- Star Wars (as airflow cars, grav-cars, hauler cars, hover cars, landspeeders, and trundle cars)
- Supercar
- Tomorrowland
- Total Recall
In literature
In video games
- Hover Ace[6][7]
- Aircar[8]
- AirCars
- Beam Breakers
- BHunter[9]
- Blade Runner (as spinners)
- Cloudpunk (as HOVAs)
- Does Not Commute
- F-Zero
- Fallout
- Hover!
- Jak II
- Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortals
- NYR: New York Race (containing hovercars from The Fifth Element)
- Overwatch
- Quarantine and its sequel Quarantine II: Road Warrior
- Redout
- ReVOLUTION[10]
- Rock n' Roll Racing
- Saints Row IV
- Space Quest I
- Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri
- TimeSplitters
- Tunnel B1
- Wipeout
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See also
Similar concepts
Hover vehicles
References
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