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While flying cars that double as a plane are yet to become a reality, they already have some competition - from a flying car that can also work like a quadcopter.

Arizona-based start-up Krossblade says its SkyCruiser concept gets over the biggest problem of the flying car - needing a runway to land and take off from.

Instead, it has four rotors that allow it to take to the air - and then switch to fly like a normal plane.

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The SkyCruiser concept gets over the biggest problem of the flying car - needing a runway to land and take off from

On the ground, the 9.5 m (31 ft) wing span can be stowed away, and electric motors mounted in the wheels drive the craft along at 75 mph (112 kph) - although be warned, it is 8.4 m (27.5 ft) long.

'SkyCruiser is a concept 5-seat hybrid VTOL transformer airplane with road-drive ability,' the firm developing the concept says.

'It enables a traveler to travel directly from point A to point B, instead of going from point A to an airport in a car say, then fly from the airport to another airport, and then drive with a car from the other airport to point B.'

It hopes to attract wealthy private jet users who value their time.  

'Rather than spending 3 to 4 hours going from LA to San Francisco, for example, SkyCruiser takes you directly to your destination, point to point, in just a little over 1 hour. 

HOW IT SWITCHES

The patent pending switchblade mechanism forms the basis of the transformation of SkyCruiser and SkyProwler. 

Airplanes need to fly fast and to fly fast you need to be as aerodynamically clean as possible.

That's why airplanes are long and narrow, somewhat drop-shaped and with as few 'things' sticking out as possible.

For vertical take-off and landing on the other hand, you need to be the opposite of aerodynamic. The more things you have sticking out producing lift (think of the extreme of a parachute for example) the easier it is to hover.

The craft can switch between plane and quadcopter mode with a special 'switchblade'

 This is one of the main reasons that helicopters which a great at hover, are not very good at forward flight, being slow as well as needing a lot of fuel.

The switchblade mechanism transforms an aircraft from the aerodynamically clean airplane configuration to the VTOL configuration, which features a number of rotors that together have a large rotor disc area that is ideal for hovering at low power. 

In normal flight, the SkyCruiser uses two 150 bhp electric motors in the tail, but when switching from horizontal to vertical flight, a set of four 'switchblade' rotor arms fold out from the fuselage to take the load.

There are four 80 bhp electric motors running the four main rotors, plus another four 10 bhp rotors to providing stability in crosswinds.

According to Krossblade, the smaller rotors can accelerate faster than the larger ones, so they can respond faster to sudden gusts.

On the ground, the 9.5 m (31 ft) wing span can be stowed away, and electric motors mounted in the wheels drive the craft along at 75 mph (112 kph) - although be warned, it is 8.4 m (27.5 ft) long.

The switchblade rotor arrangement is designed to provide the Vertical TakeOff and Landing (VTOL) SkyCruiser with the ability to hover and land in small areas while maintaining the aerodynamics of a conventional airplane,

The firm is also working on smaller drone version of the, although no price or delivery date for either variant has been announced.