VIDEO AT LINK....................
VIDEO AT LINK....................
Saw this at Oshkosh last year. Interesting concept, that might actually sell.
Can you just imagine all the morons now that don’t need to be on the road, being in the air...
Unfortunately you can’t even pilot a remote control five pound drone at 1000’ without being a terrorist these days. Something tells me that Uncle Fred avoiding a traffic jam in a crowded city (class B airspace) in his flying car will fall under the same label.
I’m still waiting for my Moller Skycar, silver unitard, and visibly larger brain.
It would sure cut down wear and tear on highways and bridges. Be kinda tough on toll road revenues too.
The only way flying cars will EVER be viable is three techs will be needed.
1. Compact Portable and SAFE Electrical power source, ie, portable fusion, or ZPE of whatever.
2. Anti-Gravity type propulsion that is cheap and compact.
3. Automated Computer with guidance and collision control software that is very tested.
We only have ONE of those....so as far as we KNOW....
Saw the same headline in 1957.
My uncle, Bruce Hallock built and flew these cars in the 1950’s. One of the many problems will be lawyers. The cost of insuring the manufacturer against lawsuits doubles the price of a plane. America was the world’s leading private aircraft producer. They were mostly driven out of business by lawsuits.
The “flying car” looks sort of like an . . . airplane. I guess an airplane with fold-up wings. No doubt a rich-guy’s toy, nothing that could be afforded by the average person. You would probably only be allowed to land and take-off at an airport, so there wouldn’t be a huge advantage to having this as opposed to a normal private plane.
Three simple words: air traffic control.
Until that problem is solved, the easier technical problem of making safe flying personal vehicles is pointless.
thrtee words explain why this cannot work: Air Traffic Control
I don’t think we will ever arrive in a Jetsons’ world where everyone has their own personal flying saucer. People would constantly be crashing into trees and telephone wires and other people’s houses and each other. It would be an air traffic control nightmare. It’s a nice fantasy though.
Having thought about it a bit, the only advantage I can see for the flying car is that you could drive it to your house and store it there, as opposed to paying the fee to keep it parked at an airport. Even then, you would need a good-sized lot and probably wouldn’t want to live very far from the airport.
If it could be built and sold at a price that’s $10,000 to $20,000 higher than typical entry-level planes I could see it becoming very popular. You can put it in a standard garage, it uses standard premium gas from any commercial gas station. You’d see a big increase in “air harbor” style subdivisions built around a landing strip rather than a golf course. There are a few now, but if it were accessible with a versatile craft having these advantages, it would do well, I’d think. But, it would need to be reliable and stable. I’d be concerned that the first failure of those folding wings would absolutely kill sales, whether it was some sort of operator oversight or mechanical would not matter, the perception would be created.