Why the U.S. Air Force Is Looking Into Its Own 'Flying Cars'

The U.S. Air Force is looking into fielding so-called “flying cars” to use as quiet transport vehicles. The Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition Will Roper wants to leverage the work of aviation companies to produce aerial taxis to create a military-grade vehicle. The result could be the 21st century's equivalent of a jeep or truck, but one that quietly flies from Point A to Point B.

DefenseOne, covering the Air Force Association’s Air, Space & Cyber conference, quoted Roper as saying that the service is kicking off a new effort, named Agility Prime, to explore the possibility of acquiring a flying car or truck. An electric-powered flying car would be relatively quiet, allowing troops to travel near and across the battlefield without the loud rotor noise of conventionally powered aircraft. The sound of helicopters and tiltrotor aircraft can travel for miles, tipping off enemy forces on the ground.

A similar effort to adapt flying cars to carry special forces kicked off in 2016, but didn’t go anywhere, due to the relatively small carrying capacity of flying cars. The head of Uber’s aviation engineering department told DefenseOne that the small carrying capacity of the "cars" meant troops would travel in ones and twos, rather than the larger groups that can deploy from a V-22 Osprey or MH-47 Chinook. The special operations community evidently prefers transport in larger numbers to have an entire raiding force land at once in full strength.