As roads and other infrastructure become more crowded and expensive to maintain, there have been many concepts floated about taking personal transportation off the ground and out of the rat race.
We already know that Yamaha is heading into the skies as they are working on a small displacement airplane engine based on a parallel twin remarkably similar to that found in the 700cc bikes from the company. Honda took to the skies several years ago in a more, dare we say it, high falutinin’ way with the HondaJet executive styled aircraft. Now it seems as though Suzuki is casting a gaze to the clouds with “flying cars”. We put quotations around those words because Suzuki does the same in the press release. Are “flying cars” not really flying cars? Well yes. In this instance the term refers to a personal mobility and transportation device capable of carrying two people. It could not be called a “flying motorcycle” because the two occupants are enclosed in a cockpit of sorts.
In reality the “flying car” from Suzuki and the company it has just made an investment in, SkyDrive, looks more like an oversized drone with multiple helicopter-like blades providing the lift. In this joint venture Suzuki will participate in the “development of technologies including weight reduction gained through the basic policy of “Sho, Sho, Kei, Tan, Bi (Smaller, Fewer, Lighter, Shorter, Neater)” and electrification, mass-production technologies, and business development…”
Perhaps someday a “flying motorcycles” will also come from the venture to create these “flying cars”.
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