Back in the 1960’s, we were promised flying cars by Hollywood (mainly the Jetsons), in the near future. Well, we’re in the second decade of the 21st century and we have yet to take off. Sure, there have been some concept flying cars but nothing that looks cool or can be produced, until now.
The concept flying car by students from the Department of Industrial Design at the School of Mechanical Automotive Engineering is designed by Pan Jiazhi, Zhu Wenxi, and Lai Zexin. These students won first place at the First International Concept Car Design Contest, which is sponsored by FOTON motor company.
The flying car concept is called YEE, rough English translation of which is, yee haa. The car is designed to meet the requirements of people living in the city and we all know city slickers need to fly on the weekends, to get away from it all in their private jet.
The car can be transformed into an airplane very easily, by lifting the front wheels (which remind me of guns on another vehicle from a video game or a comic, maybe a motorcycle from Final Fantasy? I’m not 100% sure though), up (like opening the hatch on a hatchback car), to give it flat surface from one side of the car to the other and act as the car’s wings. The back wheels turn into a propeller by being pushed sideways.
Lai Zexin is quoted as saying:
What we design is a car easy to operate, which precisely satisfy the high-efficiency of the rapid pace of life; the intimate design and the use of new energy best embodies the contest theme: the harmonious coexistence of ‘people-car-nature’.
The coolest feature on this flying car, in my opinion, is the rear wheels, which are also the propellers. I guess getting aftermarket wheels is out of the question.
