Personal Air and Land Vehicle
In 1999, Spark director Robert Barnhoorn and founder John Bakker shared the same dream: to develop a flying car. An innovative new vehicle that performed just as well on the road as in the air. It became the PAL-V: Personal Air and Land Vehicle.
It is our business to develop innovative products for entrepreneurs. Helping them to make their dreams come true. From the outset, this special project was also our dream: To be able to drive to a nearby take-off and landing strip alongside the highway, unfold the rotor and the tail, and to fly to your destination.
Revolutionary concept
Easy to fly, safe and reliable
Ideal for emergency services
Extraordinary design project
In this project the team showed what our industrial design engineers are capable of. The technical challenge was beyond any other project we had done before. Keeping the weight super low while fitting in all those moving parts, with all calculations certified in the end for a flight-legal prototype. Being designers also helped us to challenge traditional aviation ways and develop a truly revolutionary concept.
Fast on the road and in the air
The feasibility study clearly showed that the vehicle is only commercially viable if it functions fully in both drive and fly. The whole idea of PAL-V was inspired on the Carver One, the tilting motor tricycle we developed with Brink dynamics in the 1990's. Combining the tilting narrow road vehicle with the autogyro technology immediately made sense.
Fast prototyping
Next to the 3D CAD designing, the material selections and the endless calculations, we also embraced our fast prototyping approach. We built models to experience the position and fields-of-view of the driver as well as the reach envelopes inside the cockpit. And we developed a sense of size early in the process.
Keep track of the latest developments of PAL-V.
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