The Project
This really isn't a joke. Rather an attempt to re-invent the concept of "fly-drive!"
Check out the website http://www.skycarexpedition.com/
Those magnificent men in their flying machines..A band of 14 mad adventurers bouncing across the Sahara Desert on their way to the famous city of Tomboctou ( proper name).
Latest Developments
We are there to help make sure the expedition arrives in one piece. It kinda makes sense as we have been to Tomboctou 4 times now. Here's a little secret, Tomboctou is not the most glamorous place on earth. But that's not the point, it's the history of the place that counts. What the Tomboctuians (just made that up..) will make of the flying car remains to be seen.
We have had lots of exciting meetings and have another training weekend coming up in December. Actual lift off is the 14th Jan 2009.
16th Jan:
Lift off! Skycar left the Sheraton Hotel Kensington at 10:00am on the 14th Jan 2009. Talk about media scrum, there were over 100 journalists there, including 25 camera crews. It was madness!
Then it was off to Dunsfold Aerodrome for final testing:
At present the rest of the team are on their way through Europe, I am going to join them in Southern Morocco on the 27th Jan.
In the meantime, here's a BBC report on the whole mad affair:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7821979.stm
11th March 2009:
Well, it's been a while. But the good news is....We made it!
Skycar arrived into Tomboctou at 18:30 on February 25th 2009.
We arrived to an amazing reception, a phalanx of motorcycle outriders joined the expedition on the outskirts of the town and by the time we arrived in the main square, we had a mini carnival following us!
It was quite a challenge to get the expedition, vehicles and film crew from A to B and across various borders.
The car flying were definately the highlights of the expedition, no matter how many times we saw it in the air, it still took your breath away! Here's the car on a test flight in Spain-thanks to Tim Maw for the picture.
A picture paints a thousand words, so here's a selection of life on the road- again thanks to Tim Maw for the photos( please don't download any of these photos as they don't belong to me!) :
Here's some of my shakey filming of the skycar landing in the desert- apologies for the commentary, I was a bit excited...
The interest in Skycar has been huge, watch this space for more information on what happens next....
September 2009
There was a presentation at the Royal Geographical Society on September 8th, where Neil Laughton, expedition leader, gave a presentation about our adventures. At this event we also were treated to Tim Maw's "behind the scenes" video of life on the road:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ufs_NcBEkLk
In the firm belief that the best publicity Tour de Force can get is through word of mouth, I leave the last word to a satisfied client:
"Every adventure and expedition will succeed or fail on the quality of its logistics plan and competent execution. For the Skycar Expedition 2009, which involved moving 14 people, 3 trucks, 4 motorbikes and the world's first road legal flying car some 9,000 km across eight countries in a short space of time, I was very pleased to have Duncan from Tour de Force with us on the team. It was no great surprise to me that we achieved all our objectives without a hitch."
Neil Laughton
Skycar Expedition Leader / Pilot
