Another expedition succeeds

Back in January I wrote about the Skycar Expedition from England to Mali. The team planned to drive and fly an experimental 'flying car' down through Spain, across the Straits of Gibraltar, and across the Sahara Desert to Timbuktu. Here's a brief video report, made before their departure.

I'm pleased to report that they made it.

A team of adventurers who journeyed to Timbuktu in a flying car have arrived home in the UK.

The Skycar Expedition arrived in the West African city 43 days after setting off from London in a sand buggy travelling 4,000 miles by road and air.

With the help of a parachute and a giant fan-motor, pilot Neil Laughton soared over the Pyrenees and across the nine-mile Straits of Gibraltar.




The ex-SAS officer then flew over the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and above the Sahara desert.

The world's first biofuelled flying car, similar to a microlight, completed 10 flying missions during the six week expedition and arrived in Timbuktu on February 25.

They have now each made their way back to the UK, via the more traditional routes by plane and by land.

But there were a few hair-raising moments along the way.

"We are delighted to have completed our mission to fly-drive from London to Timbuktu in the world's first road legal flying car," said Mr Laughton, who has scaled the highest mountains on seven continents and trekked at the North Pole.

"Despite a few near misses - landing in the sea and another into a tree - the highlight for me was an extraordinary 15 minute flight from Europe to North Africa, crossing the Straits of Gibraltar.




"The Skycar is an incredible car and aircraft, happiest on the most rugged terrain, beautifully simple to fly and has proved remarkably resilient on what is probably the most demanding road test any car has had to endure."

The public can own their own flying car for a £50,000 [about US $69,000] price tag from Parajet Automotive Ltd.

The expedition's Web site gives more details of their adventures, including this description of a near-fatal accident a week from Timbuktu:

We found a take-off site in some flat lands between the dunes and early on Friday 20th morning I went for my best flight of the whole expedition....flying along at high speed over the sand dunes...skimming over the tree tops with beautiful still air and incredible views in every direction. I made a much improved landing and after Neil had had a few attempts at take-off without success, we decided that our make-shift airstrip was too small and that I being lighter than Neil should have another flight and see if I could get airborne again. This was bad decision, it was midday by now and some powerful thermals were kicking in...the wind direction kept changing and the conditions weren’t perfect anymore. I went for it all the same and paid the consequences...on take-off I hit a cross wind which blew me off track towards a good sized tree....instead of backing off the power and aborting the take-off I held firm on the power hoping that I would climb away over the tree or would pass by it....this didn’t happen and I flew at around foot off the ground straight into the tree at about 60mph!! The tree impaled itself in the front of the SkyCar....uprooted immediately and flew another 50 metres attached to the front of the car. The whole front of the SkyCar was destroyed, the steering rack cracked and it looked a sorry sight. We all set to work on it, cut off the front of the car and used the ten tonne winch on the front of the truck to pull out all the bends. At about midnight we had finished rebuilding it and took the SkyCar out for a spin....it worked brilliantly!

Sounds like a close call! Anyway, congratulations to all concerned.

Peter