Ditch the SUV Get your own Private Eco Plane

Claimed as the second century of flight. The Personal Air Vehicles (PAVs) will be a new generation of small aircraft that can extend personal air travel to a much larger segment of the American population. As a solution to America’s future mobility needs, NASA aeronautics developed the PAV concept to provide a more distributed and less centralized system of air travel. Super energy efficient PAVs will be able to transport people to within just a few miles of their doorstep destination at trip speeds three to four times faster than airlines or cars. NASA predicts that up to 45% of all miles traveled in the future may be in PAVs. This will relieve congestion at metropolitan hub airports and the freeways that surround them, reduce the need to build new highways and save much of the 6.8 billion gallons of fuel wasted in surface gridlock each year.

Some key features of PAVs are:

- Highly fuel efficient and able to use alternative fuels
- 150-200 mph “flying car” that flies above gridlock without traffic delays
- Quiet, safe, comfortable and reliable
- Simplified operation akin to driving a car
- As affordable as travel by car or airliner
- Near all-weather, on-demand travel enabled by synthetic vision
- Up to 800 mile range
- Short runway use so you can walk to grandma’s from small residential airfields

NASA’s PAV (Personal Air Vehicle) Challenge is a contest modeled after the successful “X-Prize” Space flight competition. To stimulate rapid innovation and progress in PAV performance, NASA has funded $2 million for the flight competition.