The Personal Air and Land Vehicle
Written by
Alan Bellows on December 13th, 2006 at 1:01 am
This is a classic Damn Interesting article which was originally published on 20 December 2005. 
Despite many technological innovations, the twenty-first century has so far completely failed us in two key departments: Flying cars, and transformers. Fortunately, we have the Dutch, who do not allow such oversights to continue unchecked.
A Dutch entrepreneur named John Bakker is working closely with Spark design engineering to develop the Personal Air and Land Vehicle (PALV), a single-occupancy transportation unit which drives like an enclosed motorcycle on the ground, yet when necessary, it can unfurl its rotors and transform into an honest-to-goodness autogyro. This allows it to leap into the air on short notice, and cruise around at altitudes below the level of commercial air traffic.
In its earthbound mode, the narrow three-wheeled vehicle is highly aerodynamic, and as agile as a motorcycle thanks to the tilting mechanism which allows it to lean into curves. It is expected to have a top speed of over 125 miles per hour, and due to its light weight, it should have a zero-to-sixty time of under five seconds. It is also projected to have excellent fuel economy, reaching about 70 miles per gallon
