Tesla Roadster and the Century-Old Challenge of Flying Cars [Oh!Graph]

Tesla unveiled a prototype of its new Roadster, featuring a demonstration of hovering a car in the air. While it surprised many, flying cars are actually not a new idea. Starting with the Autoplane in 1917, humanity has spent over a century experimenting with combining cars and airplanes through concepts like the Aeromobil, Airphibian, and Aerocar. However, this experiment has not been easy to solve. Cars require heavy safety structures to withstand collisions and rollovers, whereas airplanes need to be as light as possible. Furthermore, cars rely on downforce to press the body down at high speeds, while airplanes require lift to get the aircraft off the ground.

Despite these challenges, the pursuit of the skies continues. As social costs from ground traffic congestion grow, the demand to find new transit spaces instead of roads is increasing. Today's Oh!Graph examines the history, limitations, and future of flying cars that has spanned over a century, starting with the Tesla Roadster, through five graphs.

Reported by An Hyemin | Filmed by Hwang Se-hoe and Park Woo-jin | Edited by Lee Ki-eun | Designed by Ahn Jun-seok | Intern Shin Yeon-sung | Produced by SBS Knowledge Contents IP Department