Could the jetson car finally be here? http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/07/tech/are-flying-cars-finally-becoming-a-reality/index.html?hpt=hp_c6

 

I hope this becomes a reality in my lifetime; but I am sure it will be a logistical nightmare. 

 

 

It would be cool, I guess. But these things seem to have been dreamt about forever, and somehow they never seem to arrive.

 

I suspect you would need a society with ubiquitous, nearly human level AI (and a revolution in cheap power) to make a world of common consumer flight even remotely conceivable.

I sit here looking out my window with power lines and trees in the way...

 

With the cost of fuel I don't think many will be doing it.  Maybe if there's some  propulsion (alien) technology that is discovered or perhaps created that uses a lot less energy.

 

I think GA activity has declined, I suspect because of cost of fuel, insurance, maintenance etc..  O, for some light reading...

 

http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/72392/ICAT%20REPORT%20SHETTY.pdf

 

see page 41 for fuel use

Edited April 8, 201412 yr by bic

Just imagine, getting a drivers license could cost almost as much as getting a PPL   :lol:

I'm in love with the concept of a flying car.  Been wanting one as long as I can remember.

 

Making a car fly or an airplane roadable isn't impossible.  We already have several examples.

 

Controlling a few thousand of these in a cubic mile of sky all converging onto a single point... well, that's going to take some doing.  Then try doing it in turbulent gusty air and heavy fog.  We have no real problems doing this with land vehicles, but aircraft can't stack up and wait the way cars can.

 

Hook

Flying car, the polticians would tax it, each time it landed on fortgage road, and police would ticket flying over their speed traps by having hovercraft ready for such violations. DOT and FAA could clash over rules

This company already has a flying car in production. This is their next vehicle.

 

It will be automated in flight so this will probably be regulated.

 

We came up with the highway; perhaps this could be the next logical step.

The Flying Car is probably the longest running concept in the history of manufacturing that never gets off the ground. People have been talking about this since the silent film Metropolis was released in 1927, here we are almost 90 years later and still talking about it. 

 

The concepts are never really a flying car but more like an aircraft with folding wings and not something you would ever want to park at your local mall or grocery store, some idiot backs into it and their goes its airworthiness. 
 

This TF-X has a lot of moving propellers that you would have a hard time getting permission to operate outside of an airport. But another great concept in a long line of concepts.

 

I think the Ford Flivver was the first concept for a flying car built by Henry Ford's R&D team back in 1927:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Flivver

I think the idea was to have the TF-X only operate at permissible landing/take off pads; you would use the vehicle to drive to your launch pad, input your destination, and the autopilot does the rest.