And I do mean HITTING the road.
Posted on 09/01/2004 7:37:51 PM PDT by freedom44
Key points • Flying cars seen as a way out of congestion chaos • Californian company builds prototype Skycar • Problem of how to police new sky motorways remains unclear
Key quote "We’re trying to think through all the ramifications of what it would take to deploy a fleet of these" - Dick Paul, Vice President Boeing research
Story in full WE ALREADY have amphibious cars that can take us over land and sea and jet packs that allow us to take off like a spaceman.
Now some of the world’s leading engineers are trying to advance the technology of travel further by developing cars that can fly.
The new vehicles are seen as becoming necessary, with motorways growing more clogged, and commuters prepared to travel further.
California-based company Moller International has built a prototype of its Skycar. The streamlined vehicle - think sports car meets the hovercraft Luke Skywalker drove in Star Wars - is designed to make vertical take-offs, fly around 700 miles and drive short distances.
Jack Allison, who retired as a vice-president at Moller but still works there, said Skycars were expected to start at about $1 million and require pilot’s training.
It’s not clear when they’ll be available, but Mr Allison says more than 100 people have put down a $5,000 deposit.
Major corporations are trying to take the concept on to the mass maket.
Boeing is already thinking far ahead. The company has created a miniature model of a sporty red helicopter/car hybrid that is helping the aerospace giant to understand what it would take to make flying cars.
Lynne Wenberg, the senior manager on the project, said the goal was to make a flying car that cost the same as a luxury vehicle, was quiet and fuel-efficient and easy to fly and maintain.
Boeing is especially interested in the broader problem of figuring out how to police the airways if thousands of flying cars enter the skies. No-one wants to be cut off, tail-gated or buzzed by a student driver at 1,000 feet.
"The neat, gee-whizz part [is] thinking about what would the vehicle itself look like, but we’re trying to think through all the ramifications of what it would take to deploy a fleet of these," said Dick Paul, a vice-president with Boeing’s research arm.
Dutch researchers believe they are less than two years away from developing a machine which will be at home on the roads and in the air, while satisfying the legal requirements of both.
A three-year feasibility study at Delft Technical University has convinced entrepreneurs that with a budget of £10 million, the Aerocar could be ready for production by 2006.
The machine is expected to deliver a top speed of around 140mph in the air and 70mph on the road. In the air, the car would function as a gyrocopter, using a conventional propeller to provide thrust and helicopter-style rotors for lift.
It would need about 50 metres to take off in, but could land in a much shorter space.
After landing, the rotors and propellers would automatically fold away, and the machine would use the same engine to drive its wheels.
A flying car would follow a long line of transport innovations. This year, a British firm, Gibbs Technologies, unveiled a high-speed amphibious vehicle, the Aquada. Retailing at about £150,000, it can do 100mph on the road and 35mph on water.
It hit the headlines in June when Sir Richard Branson beat the record for crossing the English Channel in an amphibious vehicle. The Virgin chief sped from Dover to Calais in 90 minutes.
It was believed that jet packs would become a common transport method when they appeared in the Sixties. Military supplier Bell Airspace developed the first prototype in 1958, a jet haversack donned by Sean Connery’s James Bond in the 1965 film Thunderball. So far, attempts to develop one have failed..
Another invention which failed to convince the public was the Sinclair C5. With its three wheels, low driving position and top speed of 25mph, it was a laughing stock.
I've been waiting for these bad-boys ever since reading my Dad's Popular Mechanics back issues from the 1940's and '50's. Unfortunately, now I want a flying saucer...
ping
I hope they're not just TOYING with us. If someone told me in 1960 that in the 21 century there STILL wouldn't be any flying cars, I'd have kicked him in the shins.
They have to figure out how to ticket for no seatbelts before something like this can be released.
And I do mean HITTING the road.
Boeing is especially interested in the broader problem of figuring out how to police the airways if thousands of flying cars enter the
skies. No-one wants to be cut off, tail-gated or buzzed by a student driver at 1,000 feet.
Jack Allison, who retired as a vice-president at Moller but still works there, said Skycars were expected to start at about $1 million
and require pilot’s training.
Flying cars have been "just around the corner" for over 50 years.
Bottom line is that most automobile drivers are idiots and already a danger society. They are not capable of thinking in two dimensions let alone the three dimension situational awareness required for "flying".
Until this human limitation is overcome, flying cars will remain "just around the corner".
Meet George Jetson. . .
Here in the Metro DC area, traffic is so crazy that I can barely stand to be on the street in my gigantic station wagon. Thet's because of the people here [who are mostly not native by the way].
Driving for a living for several years made it all the more clear to me that they cannot handle managing the even X and Y axes. To add the Z axis would be enough to drive me into a bunker.
If they want to relieve the congestion, start building some more roads and put a moratorium on new construction until the infrastructure catches up. If there's no room for new roads, then there's no room for new construction.
That guy has been promising a 350 mph skycar for 15 years.
The Moller Skycar ^ is a nice dream, but just a little pricey at present.
I was just thinking of the "Jetsons", and I don't want a flying car, so where does that leave those of us who aren't interested in 'flying our cars'...I guess we'll be the Fred Flinstones of our time...LOL
I'll maybe show you a flying truck on Saturday if you wanna come to Florida. ;-)
Gotta have that money that would normally be made on toll roads around.
I have seen numerous operations of this kind come and go. The promoter collects the escrow money, lives off the interest for a while, then finally folds and - maybe - returns part of the deposit. I worked with a lady who had put a couple of thousand into an electric car promotion back in the 80s. She showed me the brochure and I ran the numbers on it. Wild violations of the laws of conservation of energy. I wouldn't be surprised if this flying car deal is pretty similar. Molt Taylor actually did build and demonstrate his flying car 30 years ago. Not to mention Waldo Waterman, way back before World War 2, but neither ever got anywhere.
LOL! What's that from? :)
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