Flying cars have been written into the medium and long-term development plan. At present, the flying car market has great potential and great commercial profit space. It is worth mentioning that Xpeng Motors, a new domestic car-making force, has also been deeply involved in the field of flying cars for a long time, and flying cars have been written into medium-and long-term development plans.
Flying cars have been written into the medium-and long-term development plan (1). On March 28th, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Science and Technology recently issued the Medium-and Long-term Development Plan for Transportation Science and Technology Innovation (202 1-2035) (hereinafter referred to as the Development Plan), which promoted the development of transportation science and technology innovation as a whole.
The outline of development planning points out that it is necessary to speed up the technical upgrading of transportation equipment. Strengthen the research on power transmission systems of automobiles, civil aircraft, ships and other equipment, break through the key technologies of high-efficiency, high-thrust/high-power engines, develop core components such as high-power marine turbochargers and on-board chips, and promote the application of intelligent transportation equipment certification, detection, monitoring and operation and maintenance technologies.
Promote the research and development of new energy vehicles and intelligent networked vehicles, and break through key technologies and equipment such as efficient and safe pure electric drive, fuel cell and vehicle design, and on-board intelligent sensing and control.
We will promote the independent design and construction of modern navigation AIDS such as new energy and clean energy ships, smart ships, large and medium-sized cruise ships and polar navigation ships, and break through the key technologies and equipment of intelligent sensing and control on board. Promote the research and development of high-speed wheel-rail passenger trains with a speed of 400 kilometers per hour, and achieve a major breakthrough in heavy-duty trains with a speed of 30,000 tons per hour and high-speed wheel-rail freight trains with a speed of 250 kilometers per hour.
Accelerate the research and development of large civil aircraft, heavy helicopters and intelligent general-purpose aircraft, and promote the improvement of civil aircraft product pedigree. Promote the research and development of new carrier units such as intelligent containers, intelligent circulating turnover boxes and rapid reloading and transshipment equipment.
Deploy research and development of new vehicles. Deploy ultra-high-speed commercial aircraft research and development, and break through design technologies such as wide-area aerodynamic layout, flight and launch integration, and integrated life support system. Actively explore the research and development of ultra-high-speed trains, and develop advanced track equipment with new energy, material structure integration and cross-standard adaptation. Deploy research and development of flying cars, and break through technologies such as integration of aircraft and cars, and free switching between flight and ground driving.
Flying cars have been written into the medium and long-term development plan. At present, the market potential of flying cars is huge, and there is a lot of room for commercial profit. Tesla's transition from electric cars to flying cars will also be a logical evolution. After all, it is predicted that by 2023, the market size of the American flying car industry will reach 654.38+0.2 billion US dollars, and by 2025, it will explode to 9 trillion US dollars.
So in many ways, it is reasonable for Tesla to enter the field of flying cars. And Tesla itself has such strength and funds. Three-dimensional traffic in the future is an area where the market scale may skyrocket, and flying cars just conform to the development trend of future traffic, which also attracts many enterprises and companies to start to lay out this field.
Previously, Japanese automaker Suzuki announced that it would start to lay out the field of flying cars and will cooperate with Japanese developer SkyDrive. The two companies will jointly develop electric flying national cars in the future, and the key market for sales may be India. After all, Suzuki accounts for nearly 50% of the Indian car market.
In addition, it is also reported that Joby Aviation, an American company controlled by ANA and engaged in the development of electric vertical take-off and landing equipment, will jointly develop "flying cars" with Toyota Motor.
And some progress has been made, such as EH2 16-S, an intelligent flying car of Yihang Airlines. Last year, the Civil Aviation Administration issued a draft for comments on the special conditions of EH2 16-S unmanned aerial vehicle system, clearly pointing out that the design features of this flying car have the airworthiness requirements of acceptable safety level. In other words, this means that the airworthiness path of flying cars that can fly in the air and run on land is becoming clearer and clearer in China.
It is worth mentioning that Xpeng Motors, a new domestic car-making force, has also been deeply involved in the field of flying cars for a long time, and has developed an electric flying car named Voyager X2, with a battery life of 35 minutes and a designed flying height below 1000m, which is suitable for low-altitude flying in future cities. Recently, she made her debut in Europe and was recognized by the former Dutch Prime Minister.
Judging from the current information, flying cars have become a subdivided emerging market in the automobile field, with huge commercial space and market value, and gradually attracted many car companies to enter the market. In other words, flying cars may become an important field of competition among car companies in the future, which means that Tesla may really slowly lay out the research and development of flying cars as pointed out by analysts.
Flying cars have been written into the medium and long-term development plan. 3 The Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Science and Technology recently issued the Medium-and Long-term Development Plan of Transportation Science and Technology Innovation (202 1-2035) (hereinafter referred to as the Development Plan), which promoted the development of transportation science and technology innovation as a whole.
According to the survey report on technical trends of flying cars released by Japan Patent Office in April, 20021,during the period of 20 12-20 18, the United States applied for 584 patents related to flying cars, China applied for 574, Europe applied for 307, followed by Japan and South Korea.
In China and the United States, where the total amount of patents is equivalent, there are also great differences at the enterprise level. Shenzhen DJI Technology and Foshan Shenfeng Aviation Technology Co., Ltd. ranked first and third in the global application list of flying cars with a large number of related patents; The remaining eight companies are all occupied by American companies.
Different from the popular fixed wings in the field of aircraft, enterprises are more inclined to develop rotors in the field of flying cars. Although the rotor has a small payload, it does not need to land on the runway, and the multi-rotor vertical take-off and landing is obviously more suitable for flying cars. Then, in the choice of power system, more companies are consistent with modern car companies-manufacturing pure electric flying cars. The data shows that there are only 69 patents for hybrid electric flying vehicles in China and the United States, while there are 6 16 patents for pure electric vehicles, which is almost ten times the gap; There are 479 patents related to rechargeable batteries in China and the United States, far more than fuel cells and generators. Technology and patents will make products from scratch, but whether they can be really applied still needs the help of policies and markets.
In February of this year, Klein Vision's AirCar got the world's first airworthiness certificate for flying cars. However, in sharp contrast to the outstanding advantages of China and the United States in patent, this is the product of a flying car company from Slovakia. The AirCar uses BMW's 160 HP hybrid engine as the power source, and its cruising range can reach 1000 km.
What is the significance of airworthiness certificate? In the host country, only aircraft with airworthiness certificates will be considered safe and available for operation or sale. But for our country, in the past, airworthiness certificates were issued for a single aircraft, that is to say, each aircraft had to obtain its own airworthiness certificate, but this was obviously not suitable for flying cars. But this dilemma was just solved last month.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China issued the "Special Conditions for Yihang EH2 16-S UAV System", which is the world's first special condition for UAV system model qualification examination, and provides a basis for the compliance and safety of Yihang intelligent EH2 16-S model.
This special condition not only solves the problem of unified model identification, but also puts forward special safety standards for UAVs all over the world. But from this perspective, China has obviously surpassed the civil aviation power and completed the role change from follower to leader.
In the longer term, getting the airworthiness certificate is the first step of the Long March. For example, driverless cars should move from closed roads to open traffic, from having security officers to being truly unmanned, and the roads for flying cars will not be better than cars. So at present, how to find a balance between maintaining the safety of flying cars and the development of internal technology in the industry will be the key to determine how long the flying cars will "run".