Video: X-Hawk Urban VTOL Aircraft (ie The Flying Car)

“A couple of people have posted a short animated film on the X-Hawk urban VTOL aircraft (ie flying car) on YouTube, but if you are fussy, you can get the 25 meg MPEG version from the Urban Aeronautics site.

Although it looks like something out of 1950s science fiction, the Israeli developer has done a deal with Bell Helicopter of Fort Worth, Texas, and a mock-up was shown at last year’s Farnborough International Air Show. Aviation International News has a good report. The story says:

The X-Hawk has the promise of quick, almost stealthy reaction and below nap-of-the-earth flight in urban areas. The shrouded rotor design permits operation right up to the side of buildings. Indeed, Bell believes the aircraft could be used to accomplish “midlevel structure infill,” loading and offloading people in a hover through windows above the ground floor. Sliding doors on both sides of the fuselage make this possible.

Yeah, but “mind the gap” when you’re 80 stories up…. <More>