Desde hace unos años, la posibilidad de desplegar la movilidad aérea en las zonas urbanas ha despertado el interés de muchos. Sin embargo, desde el tiempo de los pioneros aeronáuticos, pudimos vivir el desarrollo de diversas iniciativas, unas con más fundamento que otras, para el desarrollo de vehicles that can fly... and roll on the road. Algunos los llamaban flying cars, mientras que otros se indignaban con dicho término. Digamos tan solo eso, que son vehículos polivalentes que permiten volar y rodar, lo cual no es poco.
La expectación generada ha sido actualizada por la concurrencia de varias noticias y presentaciones en poco tiempo, como fueron los casos del interesante Pop.Up of Airbus or the expectation generated by the Uber al anunciar que dispondría de una flota global de estos vehículos para 2020 (cosa que nunca ocurrió, por cierto).
Although many think that such devices are inherent to the extraordinary development of aeronautics in recent years, and in particular to the technology developed for unmanned vehicles, the truth is that this is nothing new. Already at the beginning of the 20th centuryAt about the same time as the first aircraft were taking to the skies on a regular basis, aeronautical and automotive pioneers already had some ideas on the subject.
The first of these hybrid devices that had some resonance was the one devised by Glenn Curtiss, back in 1917. It was called the "Curtiss Autoplane"and flew just 15 years after the Wright brothers' first attempt. The novel aircraft-car was unveiled to great acclaim at the Pan-American Air Show in New York. The cabin was made of aluminium, had three seats and was powered by a four-bladed rear engine. It used the wings of a Curtiss Model L, which separated for road travel, and had four wheels, the front two of which were steerable, like any car of the time (or today).
From that model onwards, many inventors and manufacturers tried to tackle man's dream of unlimited movement on land and in the air. Some were more successful than others.
In this infographics hacemos una somera recopilación histórica de los prototipos más relevantes de coches-voladores desde aquel primero de Glenn Curtiss hasta los años sesenta del siglo XX. En una próxima infografía repasaremos los modelos más recientes, prototipos que rompen moldes y las propuestas que están por llegar.
