- 1990-1995 Roadable Aircraft’s first "flying car" prototype won "First Place and Best Invention of the Year" at the Discovery Channel Invention Convention in San Francisco in 1993.
- 1996-2003 Roadable Aircraft’s second prototype was co-developed with the US Navy under a 3-year
Co-operative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) conducted at Naval Warfare Center Weapons Division, Point Mugu, CA between 2001 and 2004 that culminated in a US Patent for VTOL Flying Car. US Navy sponsored RAI VTOL Patents and provided patent attorneys under co-development agreement.
- 2003 - 2007 RAI’s 3rd prototype, co-developed with strategic partner, AirStar Inc. and US Navy under same CRADA, was a 3⁄4 scale UAV that was built to test the flight controls and remote controllability originally proposed for deployment from Trident missile silos. RAI was the only private company ever to have an operational presence at the US Navy’s secret high tech systems testing range and Naval version of "Skunk Works".
- 2007 - Present Parts production and the infrastructure development and testing are already underway for the production of the Flyer V1 with patented VTOL Vortex Technology. These vehicles will look and drive like cars and fly like helicopters without the exposed propellers. As designed, the vehicles will be fast, convenient and relatively inexpensive to operate and maintain.
- January 10, 2008 Roadable Aircraft’s VTOL technology and patented designs are being designed and tested using Autodesk Inventor. The engineering firm’s decision to upgrade came from chief design engineer, Michael Boehm, "From Boeing C-17s to Toyotas, Autodesk Inventor is helping manufacturers design and build vehicles by giving them a true digital prototype to work directly with using the Inventor 3D model". Digital Prototyping gives Roadable Aircraft the ability to virtually explore a product that is completed before it is built. This allows them to create, validate, optimize, and manage designs from the conceptual design phase through the manufacturing process. By using a digital prototype, Roadable Aircraft can visualize and simulate real-world performance of the design with less reliance on costly physical prototypes.
- January 30, 2008 Roadable Aircraft arrives at new home for its experimental VTOL aircraft. Roadable Aircraft has moved its experimental VTOL prototypes to their new facility in Ventura CA, where they will be on display as historical aircraft that document the development of their patented VTOL technology over the last 18 years. Both prototypes are significant steps in aviation evolution as the 1st prototype won the Best Invention of the year and 1st prize at the Discovery Channel Invention Convention in 1993. The second prototype was part of a US NAVY and Roadable Aircraft International co-development between 2001-2004 at Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, Point Mugu Navy Base, California, and was awarded patents for a flying car. A third prototype was also built at NAWCWD as an unmanned air vehicle (UAV), vertical take off and landing vehicle (VTOL).
- February 11, 2008 Roadable Aircraft Inc. announces breakthroughs in new VTOL folding wing design. Roadable Aircraft, credits 3D analysis and virtual designs that model airflow optimization and stress analysis. State of- the-art Computational Fluid Dynamic software has developed over the 7 years since Mike Boehm joined RAI as Chief Design Engineer in 2001. "With what we have learned from our 2nd and 3rd prototypes and our UAV technology, we have made dramatic changes using our current 3D analysis of the specific lift characteristics and have added a folding wing and redesigned the aerodynamics and duct surfaces for optimization of thrust.
- June 16, 2008 Roadable Aircraft Inc., a leader in VTOL aerospace technology announces that it is offering its revolutionary patented VTOL ducted fan technology in a kit form and will sell its kit vehicles under the experimental kit aircraft protocol. The kit @ $240,000 without jet turbine engine, will be built in 4 sections including cockpit, duct and tail sections each with 51% assembly required by owner. RAI plans to train existing helicopter and VTOL mechanics and certify a nation wide network of service centers to service and provide support for its VTOL aircraft.
- November 19, 2008 Roadable Aircraft Incannounces that it is building aircraft parts for it’s kit VTOL Vehicles and expects sales to reach $100 million within 12-16 months. The parts have been designed, built and tested prior to shipping. The company says it is building 25% of the kit parts and the remainder over the next year and anticipates demand to accelerate the completion and certification of it’s V1 Vortex production model.
|
