Creating a Flying Car Using 3D Designing! (TinkerCad and Fusion 360)

Hello there! This Instructable will show the design process of making the Airbus/Audi flying car concept using TinkerCad first, and then using Fusion 360. This is a pretty simple process once you get the hang of it, and I think you could easily try doing this for yourself, with some practice and some reference photos to base your model off of. That's really all there is to it. Even though its simple, it did take time and effort to create it. This Instructable will show my design of the Airbus/Audi flying car concept, which uses inspiration from the original design, with my own take on it. The 3D design features the three parts of the flying car, which includes the ground module, the cabin, and the air capsule. I will mainly explain the second portion of the process, which was modeled in Fusion 360. If I explained all of the TinkerCad modeling, this Instructable would be extremely long. I hope this Instructable is easy to understand, and easy to follow! And I hope you enjoy!

Materials Needed:

• A Laptop/Computer
• TinkerCad Software
• Fusion 360 Software
• An Autodesk Account
• Some Experience with CAD

Optional Materials:

• A 3D Printer

Link to Model: 

• Autodesk- Fusion 360: Airbus Flying Car

Model Files:

At Drone Week in Amsterdam, Audi, Airbus and Italdesign presented for the first time a flying and driving prototype of “Pop.Up Next”. This car is the evolution of the first fully electric and zero-emission modular system, designed to help resolve traffic congestions.This innovative concept for a flying taxi combines a self-driving electric car with a passenger drone. In the first public test flight, the flight module accurately placed a passenger capsule on the ground module, which then drove from the test grounds autonomously. They envision customers using a convenient and efficient flying taxi service in large cities – in the air and on the road. Without changing vehicles, passengers will enjoy their leisure time, relax, or work.

Link to Article:

• https://www.audi-mediacenter.com/en/press-releases/audi-airbus-and-italdesign-test-flying-taxi-concept-11019

Finding reference photos can be one of the most important keys to designing any model. Without having photos, it causes the design process to be harder, because you don't have anything to base it off of. So, this step is really important. For this particular car, it was somewhat easy to find these photos, considering that it is a concept car, and the companies have created a model to do testing. To be honest, I assumed it would have been much harder to find any photos, considering that it wasn’t even a real car. So, I used most of the main photos was released to the public by Audi and Airbus, and used videos of the concept to help design the 3D model. Overall, it wasn’t too difficult to find reference photos. The photos above were the main ones I used to design the 3D model, and helped give me ideas for minor changes I could make.

After gaining reference photos, I began modeling in TinkerCad. I won't explain this process in very great detail, because for this project, I mainly focused on Fusion 360, and not TinkerCad. For this model, I didn't focus on the details. I kept it simple, and allowed myself to spend more time with the other design. The 3D design still does feature the three parts of the flying car, which includes the ground module, the cabin, and the air capsule. But, it doesn't have an interior, or complex shaping. Using TinkerCad, I can design whatever I want quickly, just by stacking some shapes. This allows for quick prototyping, with simpler shaping. Although TinkerCad is easy to use, and allows for quicker modeling, it does not have all the features needed to make a detailed model. In Fusion 360, there is sketching, which allows the user to create any shape they want accurately. There is really nothing similar in TinkerCad to this, which is a large problem. I now realize that it is actually harder to make certain things in TinkerCad compared to Fusion 360, even if it is a simpler software to use. This is why i chose to dedicate most of my time to the Fusion 360 design.

This was my first large project that was first modeled in TinkerCad, and then modeled in Fusion 360, and it was a bit of a new experience for me. I had to figure out all the controls, and the many functions the software had to offer. The main one I used was sketching, which allowed me to sketch a 2D shape, and later on, extrude the shape to create a part.

Cabin:

I started off by uploading the first image pictured above into the software. Using the sketching tool, I traced an outline of the cabin, separating the different sections as shown above. Then, I extruded the different sections. I ran into many issues along the way. I had no idea how to do curved lines, and skipped those sections and did the straight edges. I later on figured out how to do the curved edges, and added that later. Also, I didn’t realize the many different sections I would need, so I had to restart many times. After I finally outlined the correct sections, I extruded them. Some needed to be smaller than others, and also be duplicated. After this, I had the cabin as a 3D design, with sharp edges, but needed to get rid of them.

Recently, I had a final project for school where we I used CAD, and designed a frame for a box. Throughout the design process for that frame, I got to explore many of the features that Fusion 360 had. I discovered the fillet option, where you could create a curved edge from an existing sharp edge. So, I did that to all of the cabin, except for the windows. After I designed custom lights using the same method, I proceeded with the ground module.

Ground Module:

Likewise, I used the same method to create the ground module, except for the wheels, battery, and motor. Those were also custom, and made with the shapes in Fusion 360. The wheels were quite easy, and were designed using cylinders with filleted edges. Then, I made the wheel covers. I started off with a circle in sketching, and then experimented with many designs. I decided to go with a three-point star, and extruded it into a cylinder. To replicate the curve in the wheel cover, I filleted the edges. The battery was made using a rectangular prism with chamfered edges. Finally, the battery pack was also made with a rectangular prisms, with many rectangular prisms cut out of it. Next, I proceeded with the air capsule.

Air Capsule:

This is where I started to drift a bit off course, and proceed with a different method compared to what I had been using at the start of the project. When I was browsing through the reference photos, it become clear that the arms holding the entire air capsule would be fairly difficult to recreate, especially for me. So, I decided to veer of course, and design the arms as thin pipes, with supports holding the pairs together. This was quite easier, and worked just as well. The large cylindrical structure holding the propeller was made using a cylinder with filleted edges. Speaking of propellers, they were made by sketching out a circle, and then extruding lines into piping shaped as triangular prisms. Finally, the last section to design was the interior of the car.

Interior:

Before I could even start the interior design, I had to work on hollowing out the entire cabin. Since it was extruded, the width was the same at many points, which meant that it wasn’t hollow. So, I used the glass portions to hollow out the main sections, and used parts of the armrest to hollow out the rest. Similarly to the air capsule, I also drifted a bit off course for the interior of the cabin. I didn’t really enjoy the look of the concepts interior, and wanted to make it unique to my design. Once Audi joined, the exterior of the concept was an all-white design, which I enjoyed more than the original color scheme. I felt that gold would match perfectly with the all white exterior, so I chose to do a white interior with gold and black accents. In terms of seating, I wanted seats that were more comfortable for passengers riding in the vehicle. I also decided that it would be quite difficult to design my own seats. So, I went on Thingiverse, and found a Recaro seat design, and used two of them in my design. One of the prominent interior features is the 49-inch curved display, which sits on the marble dashboard. The curved display was created using a curved line that was extruded. The marble dashboard was simply made of a rectangular prism, which had a cutout to hold to the curved display.

The ground module features an electric car drivetrain and is transported on land by an Audi chassis. This system allows the cabin to transform itself into a car by simply attaching to the ground module, which features a carbon-fiber chassis and is battery powered. It has two electric motors, powering each pair of wheels, which means that the concept has AWD capabilities, which helps in slippery conditions. The battery pack underneath the car is covered with a durable cover that slides over it, preventing damage to the battery pack. In electric cars, it is very important for the car to be aerodynamic, and cut through the air for max efficiency. The wheels of the car are fitted with wheel covers, similar to some electric cars, in order to prevent air from being trapped in the wheel. I used the original design to get an overall shape and feel for how the ground module would work, and then drifted off, and added my own design to it. This is mainly shown in the headlights and taillights, which were designed by me. In the front, the concept features LED headlights and fog lights, along with the illuminated Audi emblem, with the four rings. Also, there are sequential LED indicators, and a large rear LED brake light. Overall, this system was quite complex, and needed to conform around the cabin properly, and allow the cabin to transform into a land-vehicle.

The system that houses the passengers is the cabin. It features an ultra-light, carbon fiber chassis, with a two-seater passenger cabin can be attached either to the ground module or to the air capsule. Similar to the ground module, the system features fully LED headlights and taillights. The doors of the concept are almost fully glass, allowing passengers to have a panoramic view of the city while they are flying. But, at the same time, they are also slightly tinted, allowing for occupants to have privacy during operation. It is equipped with sound dampening in the walls of the car, which reduces road noise while the car is on the ground, and while it is in the air. Many flying aircrafts are noisy, and passengers can easily hear the noise outside of the aircraft. Through this design, passengers have a noiseless cabin with sound dampening, combined with the fact that it is electric vehicle, with no engine and exhaust. My design is a bit different compared to the photos of the concept. This is due to how I actually created the cabin during the early design stages. But, I am still overall very happy with how it turned out, and took the most time to design and model.

Notice: The interior, though part of the cabin, will be explained in a step later in the Instructable

The drone portion of the vehicle has two skids and four propellers, mounted on four metal arms. The air module will automatically connect to the cabin before flying, then place the passenger cabin on the car module portion when it arrives to its destination, all autonomously, so the passengers will never have to fly or do any driving, when in use. The portion that connects the air capsule to the car was somewhat difficult, due to the odd shape of the four arms on the concept design. I decided to make it simple, and use thinner connections, to make it easier to design. The connection point simply attaches to the cabin, and conforms around the roof. The blades on the propellers are actually triangular prisms, and are not flat blades. Each of the structures that hold the propellers are equipped with LED lights, which indicate the status of the attachment process. If the air capsule is properly attached to the cabin, the LED will show green. If it is not currently attached, the LED will show red. Overall, this was a fairly simple system to design, but one of the most important to the overall car.

This is probably my favorite part of the car, and was the most fun to design. The prominent interior feature is the 49-inch curved display, which sits on the marble dashboard. This was inspired by the Tesla Cybertruck, which features a large display on a marble dashboard. Occupants can relax inside as the vehicle is fully autonomous. Interactions with the car are handled via touch, voice and gesture recognition, as well as head and eye tracking. In addition to this, the car features two Recaro seats, which are extremely comfortable, and allow passengers to have a smooth ride. In terms of storage, there is space behind the seats to store small items for everyday travel. The original concept had green accents on the interior, which in my opinion, didn’t really match the color scheme of the concept. For my design, I decided to add gold accents, which matched the white exterior. On the roof of the car, in the interior, there are two LED lights, so the passengers can safely fasten their seat belts and aid in finding lost items in the dark. Like I stated earlier, the doors are almost fully glass, allowing passengers to have a panoramic view of the city while they are flying. I really enjoyed designing this part of the car, and am really happy with how it turned out.

Steps to How I Rendered This 3D Model:

Notice: (You don't have to follow these steps to render your design. This is how I taught myself to do it, and it worked well for me!)

1. Once you are complete with your model, go to the top corner labeled as "design." Click on the tab, and then click on "render." This should take you to the render workspace in Fusion 360.
2. Next, open the color wheel labeled as "Appearance"
3. Then, drag and drop certain materials to certain parts of the model. (Use Materials List Below)

Notice: (The next few steps are optional, and are not required for rendering. It is meant for people wanting to render with a custom background)

1. After this, open the tab at the top left corner labeled as "Scene Settings."
2. Then, go to your web browser (Used Chrome) and search for a website with HDR files
3. After finding one, return to Fusion 360, scroll down until you find text labeled "Attach Custom Environment", and click on it.
4. Once you click on it, it should open your file explorer and open download. Then, click on the file you downloaded as an HDR file, and click "Open."
5. Then, it should eventually upload it to the scene, and it should appear in the render workspace.
6. Finally, you are finished!

Materials Used (Render Workspace):

• Plastic- Matte (White): Exterior Paint
• Aluminum- Satin: Battery Pack and Motors
• Leather- Matte (White): Seats
• Paint- Enamel Glossy (Black): A-Pillars
• LED (Green): Status Indicator (On Air Capsule)
• Paint- Enamel Glossy (Dark Grey): Interior Flooring
• Glass- Grey: Windows
• Paint- Metallic (Yellow): Gold Accents
• Leather- Matte (Black): Audi Floor Mat
• LED- SMD 5630- 50lm (White): Headlights
• LED (Red): Taillight's
• Marble (White): Dashboard
• Rubber (Hard): Tires
• Display- 4x20- LCD: Curved Display

And this is the last and final step! Taking a look at your design! I am happy with how this turned out, and I hope you liked it too. It took some effort and time, but I obviously think it pays off after you are finished. I will still be tweaking the design and making changes and adding things, so stay tuned for that. Otherwise, I hope you enjoyed reading through this Instructable and seeing the design process of making the Airbus/Audi flying car concept using CAD. And, I also hope you found this Instructable useful and if you have any questions, please feel free to leave me a message or comment bellow. Just remember that your imagination can take you anywhere, and the sky is the limit!

Thank you for reading this, and have a great day!

Links to some of my other Instructables:

• N-1 Mandalorian Starfighter
• Bad Batch Shuttle