Future Flight: Prog 2 of 2

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<p>Gareth Mitchell meets the engineers who are designing flying cars and green aircraft. </p><p>Gareth has a go at flying a personal aircraft in the flight simulator at Liverpool University. Doctors Mike Jump and Mark White explain that the EU-funded project MyCopter is seriously looking at the prospect of flying personal vehicles that are as easy to drive as a car. </p><p>Sophie Robinson, a Ph.D student at Liverpool University, explains how her research into the safety and stability of auto-gyros, flying machines that already exist for personal travel, could set standards for the flying cars of the future.</p><p>Prof Jeff Jupp, who worked on the wings of the largest passenger plane, the A380, talks about alternative fuels to kerosene and new designs for engines. These look rather old-school, as they have propellers, but they will make the aircraft more energy efficient. But there may be a downside in that they could be noisier and slower than jet engines. </p><p>Dr Will Graham describes the work he has done on the Silent Aircraft project, in which the engines are set inside the wings.</p><p>(Image: The SkyRider, one of the concepts of the MyCopter project. Image courtesy of Gareth Padfield, FS&amp;C)</p>