It’s 2025 and we still don’t have flying cars — but we’ve got this full-scale flying DeLorean prop from [Brian Brocken], and that’s almost as good. It’s airborne and on camera in the video embedded below.
We’ve written about this project before; first about the mega-sized CNC router [Brian] used to carve the DeLorean body out of Styrofoam panels, and an update last year that showed the aluminum frame and motorized louvers and doors.
Well, the iconic gull-wing doors are still there, and still motorized, and they’ve been joined by a tire-tilting mechanism for a Back To The Future film-accurate flight mode. With the wheels down, the prop can use them to steer and drive, looking for all the world like an all-white DMC-12.
The aluminum frame we covered before is no longer in the picture, though. It’s been replaced by a lighter, stiffer version made from carbon fibre. It’s still a ladder frame, but now with carbon fiber tubes and “forged” carbon fiber corners made of tow and resin packed in 3D printed molds. There’s been a tonne of work documented on the build log since we last covered this project, so be sure to check it out for all the details.
Even in unpainted white Styrofoam, it’s surreal to see this thing take off; it’s the ultimate in practical effects, and totally worth the wait. Honestly, with talent like [Brian] out there its a wonder anyone still bothers with CGI, economics aside.
Thanks to [Brian] for the tip! If you have a project you’ve hit a milestone with, we’d love to see it, even if it doesn’t trigger the 80s nostalgia gland we apparently all have embedded in our brains these days. Send us a tip!
SICK. I have a love / hate relationship with most of the stuff on HAD. I love pretty much all of it and I hate that I have zero chance of replicating any of it. I hope this DeLorean can go at least all the way to having a “paint” job, wrap, or whatever can make it look like the actual car.
CGI is a mixed bag, I grew up on the 3 hour blockbusters and the peak of film Cinema in the 70s and 80s, even into the 90s with Speilberg/Zemeckis.
Yes CGI is ‘cheap’, but it’s also ‘cheap’ in the sense that the lighting does not look right, not to mention the ‘marionettes’ lack realistic physics. Try the special effects in Zathura or Interstellar vs a Marvel or Transformers movie. Practical effects, real light and shadow.
Star Trek TNG vs Enterprise, no contest TNG wins with the models.
You only notice the bad CGI.
Practically every film from the last couple decades has CGI in it, you just didn’t notice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bL6hp8BKB24
I agree, with the addition that “no cgi” has become a marketing stunt in itself, where the studios deny using it.
Check out Jonas’ series on this:
https://youtu.be/7ttG90raCNo?si=BT_ei1Kmdlcal1Hm
TNG used CGI quite a lot. DS9 used even more.
Also, CGI isn’t cheaper than practical effects, on the whole. It is often a lot more expensive because it involves so many more man-hours of work than most practical effects.
I rarely click on the video links but this one was worth it.
Amazing how much the styrofoam looks like 1990s CGI…
(I know it’s not)
Ahem. We do have flying cars. Just not cheap/practical ones.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_car
Whoops I didn’t mean to reply to you.
It might be possible for further weight saving to drive the rear wheels off just one motor in the centre between the hubs and a carbon fibre tube going to each wheel hub gear mechanism. And further weight saving with just one motor to do the wheel tilt by using pulleys and fine kevlar cord.
I reckon advice from someone like Daniel on the rctestflight channel would be just the thing to tune the flight software to resolve the persistent yaw to the left.
Feels like you could save some of weight by putting battery packs near the motors and avoid all those long power cables?
IMHO, flying DeLorean still looks plenty cooler than anything modern-day.
Because Giorgetto Giugiaro, and insofar I haven’t seen any AI that can mimic his designs (or Syd Mead for that matter – the genius behind the “Blade Runner”, cars, etc.).
Call me stupid, but we are missing good designers.
Would love to see a cyclorotor version of this.
https://newatlas.com/aircraft/cyclotech-blackbird-cyclorotor-evtol/