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The Program continued

The Volante Itself
The current Volante is a two-place composite machine with an empty weight of about 1,200 lbs. and a gross weight of 1,850 lbs. Conversion time, either way, in leisurely style, is less than ten minutes and the job can be done by one person. It will cruise at 150 mph with a Lycoming 0320 and drive at highway speeds as a car. Speed with the flight section trailer attached, will always depend a lot on crosswind. If you can blow over an 18-wheeler, as we do regularly in California, you can also make travel with a Volante package quite exciting. I am shooting for highway speed with the trailer and this includes travel alongside the 18 wheelers. This is made possible because the trailer does not present a large cross section to the wind as did Molt's forerunner.

Next, let's actually take a look at the current Volante as derived from the image above ↑. Incidentally, that is yours truly right after the first flight at El Mirage dry lake in California, where we have done most of the testing.

The picture on the left, shows the flying car on the ramp at Mojave just before taxiing out to fly.

The image to the right is the car parked behind my shop in Santa Ana. The landing gear has been modified to a wheel pants conversion since the flight pictures.→

The next three pictures show the Volante in flight, the first two taking off at Mojave and the third from an in flight video taken at El Mirage.

I have also included a picture of the first Volante, that I built earlier, a canard, and the car that went with it I have driven and flown this one also on my way to a better flying car.

I also built a ground-only test vehicle which I call the Dune Buggy. It was used to develop the drive components of the car prior to installation in the flight vehicle, and also to test them for durability. It has been used to help in car/aircraft center of gravity compatibility work and to develop a suspension suitable for both. It has been driven almost daily and is registered with California DMV. I found this step to be necessary in order to be sure I had a durable product for the road.

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