According to wired.com, Darpa hopes that this project, which consists in a two or four passenger vehicle able to drive on roads as well as fly, will lead to an actual prototype, although an estimated completion time has not been discussed yet.
As a Pentagon related division, the vehicle's purpose is expected to be mainly used for commando delivery-extraction missions, urban scouting and casualty evacuation. Many companies have declared over time that the flying car concept is very close to become real, but until now, no one has really proved to have a viable alternative over this concept.
Darpa's concept consists in a vehicle that should be able to cruise on land at speeds of 60 mph, and while in air, at 150 mph.The main challenge of this project will consist, from what Darpa declares, “in defining the major components of such vehicle that would be suitable for military scouting and personnel transport missions, yet are small enough, inexpensive enough, and easy enough to operate that it can be widely used."
From Darpa's point of view, without trying to commit to anything and opposed to Parajet's concept, makers will need to use “morphing wings” in order to successfully make the transition from land to air, "optimized disk loading" propulsion "for the combined fly/drive mission" and a flight control software that should both be reliable and easy to use. Aiming at the small business sector, the project should attract investors interested in paying under a million dollars per year. But since Darpa is a special division of the Pentagon, seeing a small intervention from their behalf might just tip things into their favor and thus make the flying car vehicle a real thing.
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