A 100% electric speedster on the road with supercar looks and a jet-powered mini business jet in the air. The Fusion JC7 concept could well combine the best of both worlds to save time… provided you are fortunate.
A monster of the road coupled with a mini-jet, here is the Fusion JC7. For the moment, it is only an ambitious concept from the imagination of Greg Brown, a Californian designer who was a former fighter pilot, then an airliner. The car, whose lines recall the atmosphere of Italian supercars, has a huge spoiler that overhangs the rear. On the ground, the racing car tucks its vast wings into its sides and retracts the rear plan to mingle with road traffic.
It’s a 100% electric monster of the road with two Tesla motors placed at the front and rear for a combined power of 1,000 horsepower. With them, the racing car could theoretically reach 100 km/h in less than four seconds. Its autonomy on the road would then be 240 kilometers. And when she wants to take to the air, the car is then powered by two Williams FJ-33 engines, with a weight limit of 140 kilos. This type of engine is found on the Cirrus Vision SF50, a mini-jet that can carry up to six passengers. Still in theory, these two reactors should be able to maintain the car-aircraft at a cruising speed of more than 830 km/h over a distance of 1,200 kilometres. To achieve this, the aircraft’s tanks are designed to hold more than 1,000 liters of kerosene. Greg Brown does not say whether performance in electric mode is maintained with such a mass to move for the two motors.
A $2.5 million toy
According to its designer, the Fusion JC7 can land on a relatively short runway. For the landing, you don’t even need to be an experienced pilot, the car does a lot of the work on its own. Its automatic brakes and suspension system can absorb a lot of energy and bring the aircraft to a stop in less than 800 meters. This allows you to land on most airfields.
For its designer, such a car would be suitable for a (very wealthy) person wishing to save time by simply taking the road to get to the airport quickly and reach another city in just 40 minutes thanks to its cruising speed. high.
Fast in the air and on the road, the concept could well leave the drawing board to materialize. The design studio collaborates with Corvid Technologies to test the behavior of the car in aircraft mode and determine its pitch constraints, as well as its drag coefficient. The concept was also presented to scientists at Stanford University and it reportedly caught their attention. As for the jet side, Greg Brown points out that there is no reason the vehicle should not be able to fly, since most of its components are identical to certain small business jets. The only constraint could be its funding. The designer considers that it will take around 20 million dollars to develop it. The car-jet could cost around 2.5 million dollars per unit, according to him.
