How fast would a car with wings have to drive to achieve lift?

Question

Was driving 80 yesterday and felt as if I was going to lift off of the ground. Was wondering if my car had wings, would I be able to achieve lift at that speed? I know that it would immediately drop without jet engines, but what would it take to lift a car up? Let's say an aerodynamic car like a trans-am.

Answer 1

Wings with flaps/ailerons, an empenage, and 90 knots or more depending on the weight of the car.

Answer 2

Depends on your wing design (type of airfoil, Aspect Ratio, etc) just to lift of, but then you will come back down without something to keep pushing it when it is airborne.

You will then need some moving surfaces to control it laterally and longitudinally or else you will be a piece of flying object with no direction.

Good luck..

Answer 3

Fast enough to overcome drag and gravity.

Answer 4

At 80 mph you could life off if the wing surface area was 160 sq. ft., however to maintain stable flight would require a prop on the front, and an air speed of 95 mph.  Go for it!  :)

Answer 5

A Trans-Am is aerodynamic in the sense that its design is meant to force it to the ground, rather than allow it to lift up which would result in sloppy steering and poor braking at high speeds. Theoretically, you could attach wings that would lift the car briefly under its own power, but once aloft without continued thrust, it would probably succum to gravity with catostrophic results. Here is the key:

L=CL SA 1/2p V2 (Lift= coefficient of lift times Surface area times 1/2 R ((air density)) times velocity squarred) Good luck with your design. Wear a helmet!

Answer 6

Car have flown! (not very far) But the amount of aerodynamic aids and power would be near impossible to reproduce on the street. I've put a link to the Mercedes CLK at Lemans a few years back that "flew", they have since added a chicane to keep speeds down so the cars don't produce lift. If the link does not work, search youtube for "clk mercedes flip"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIDpXYu-N...

Answer 7

Depends... anywhere from 5 - 100+ mph, factors to consider:

- Wing length/design, you need to catch a certain amount of air at a certain weight to lift the vehicle

- Avaiable thrust amount/type, assuming you are just using the car's wheels and not rockets or jet engines, cars lifting from wheel power alone will not stay airborne long

- Wind resistance/direction

As an aside, if your vehicle feels like it is lifting at only 80 mph, you very likely have some body or undercarriage damage somewhere that is catching air. Even old cars can usually cruise at 80-90 mph with little or not lift that you could feel.

Answer 8

Well that depends on how big of wings you have and how much your entire "vehicle" weighs.  

It would probably be good to note here that I remember hearing that Orville and Wilbur Wright flew their Wright Flyer somewhere in the range of about 35 mph.  So speed is not the most important factor in achieving flight.  It would depend more upon the profile and surface area of your wings.  All flight really entails is achieving an upward force (lift) greater than that of your weight.

Answer 9

It would partly depend upon the size and design of the wings. You just need to generate enough lift to overcome gravity. Some of those light aircraft can take off at about 70mph, but then they weigh about half as much as your Trans-Am!

Answer 10

That would depend on the weight to thrust ratio. Also, Trans-Ams are NOT aerodynamic.

Answer 11

lets say alot of torque.