Flying car could come to your rescue

Yoeli started working on the precursor to X-Hawk and Mule in 2000, but Flater said the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks have “given vertical takeoff and landing vehicles a new priority.”

“The military is learning that they have to fight wars in cities again,” he said. “So we’re looking at unmanned aerial vehicles that can provide reconnaissance. Obviously the next step would be to look for vehicles ... that can provide actual relief in urban areas.”

Bell, which exhibited a full-scale mock-up of X-Hawk at the 2006 Farnborough air show, sees huge market potential for an aircraft that could operate in confined areas and evacuate wounded soldiers, but hasn’t fully committed to the project.

Costs are still uncertain, and it’s still unclear whether the X-Hawk can be designed to carry a “useful load — fuel, folks and equipment,” said Jon Tatro, Bell’s director of advanced concept development.

Mule, configured to carry two wounded people, will carry an estimated $1.5 million price tag. A civilian, 10-passenger version of X-Hawk, for use in rescue missions, utility work or executive transport, is projected at $3.5 million, while a military model carrying a dozen people and more sophisticated equipment would cost $6 million.

Tatro and Flater say the estimates for the military model might be low.

Yoeli expects an unmanned Mule prototype to be flying in two or three years and in production within five. He projects a manned X-Hawk will first hover in 2009 and hit the market within eight years. He hopes ultimately to sell 250 to 300 machines annually, out of up to 2,000 helicopters sold worldwide.

The 55-year-old Yoeli says he’s been fascinated by flight since childhood and got into the flying car business after two years at Boeing Co., five at Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd. and 14 at a company he co-founded to develop unmanned airborne vehicles and helicopter applications.

His initial fantasy was a flying sports car. But because of all the regulatory issues that would have to be resolved before masses of commuters could start whooshing through the sky, he tucked that dream aside to develop something that could hit the market earlier.

Company headquarters are dominated by a large, white-domed flight simulator and the proof-of-concept vehicle that Yoeli says he built in his second-floor living room so he could spend more time with his family.

What’s compelled Yoeli on this project is the urge “to get up vertically,” without needing a runway or a rotating mechanism overhead.

“You sit in a traffic jam, and everyone gets this urge: I want to get up now, and over this,” he said. “You need a certain kind of machine. I think X-Hawk can do it.”

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