Making a flying car: how much energy is required to keep a 1 lb cube hovering?

Question

Eventually I believe they will have to be made.. maybe not for a long time but eventually YES they will.

So how much energy is required to lift a 1 lb object in the air?
And how does this relate to a 10 lb, 100 lb, and 1000 lb object?

Answer 1

You omit a vital datum--how high?

W = integral of F*ds

For a height of 1 foot, gravity variation can be ignored, and F can be considered constant at 1 lb.

The integral then yields 1 lb*ft. The other weights require proportional energies.

The other thing you omit is "how?", or what manner of propulsion, or both.

If you use an on-board engine, the problem becomes more one of "how much energy does it take to lift the engine?" and your weight(s) become payload which "goes along for the ride" That truly requires the services of a rocket scientist, as well as an aeronautical engineer or balloonist.

Answer 2

Best that you contact the experts here: http://www.moller.com/skycar/
and ask them. The flying car is for real, and is not as far off as you think. The biggest obstacle is your faithful bureaucrats, the FAA, denying Americans the freedom to fly them. The war-on-terror will probably be used as an excuse to keep it off the market as long as possible. Other countries will likely leap ahead of the USA because of this.