A few years back, in a Toyota Flying Car thread, Spoofe and Sam Stone alerted readers to various flying car options.
As I was poking around on 60 Minutes website (looking for verification on an Andy Rooney piece), staring me right ion the face were video clips for:[ul][li]The Carter Copter - A $300,000 personal helicopter that cruises @ 400mph[]NASA’s Highway in the Sky - A computer program that could one day be used for air traffic control of personal flying vehicles[]And my personal fave: Paul Moller’s Sky Car - A gas powered rocket car - Described as a Ferrari / Bat Mobile hybrid. It’s fun to watch it vertically lift off (even though in the clip it’s tethered to a crane).[/ul] [/li]Real Player / WMP Links here: 60 Minutes Sunday
Call me a Johnny one note - but I love these things. Though I can’t get one tomorrow, I don’t mind waiting 10 to 15 years - that’ll give me time to save a few $ and modify my garage.
I’ve seen photos of the Carter Copter, but haven’t looked into it. I did find a web page about it, but having been akwakened too soon I don’t feel like reading it right now. I scanned it for speeds, but didn’t see 400 mph.
I don’t know that much about gyrocopters. Maybe it mentions it in the article, but how do they handle retreating blade stall?
Work seems to be progressing on the Highway In The Sky scheme. Not everyone will be able to use it though, because it will be too expensive to equip most GA aircraft with the gear.
The Moller Sky Car has been coming ‘any time now’ for donkey’s years. One problem is that turbine engines are expensive. That alone will prevent most people from getting one. From what I’ve seen (and it’s been a while since I’ve looked) it’s not very efficient when you take into account the initial purchase cost, maintenance, seat miles per gallon, etc. And if it were ever sold for the usage it’s marketed for… the carnage will be glorious!
Agreed. Anytime I see futuristic ideas about personal helicopters or flying cars I think that it’s great that we don’t have them, because I don’t have to worry about incompetent or drunk drivers crashing into me when I’m far from the road, or crashing into my house, or whatever.
Can you imagine the chaos that would result from prevalent flying cars? All the clipped telephone wires and power lines, the microwave towers crashed into, the botched landings into swimming pools and homes, and the huge numbers of people who are going to be lost at sea, over large lakes, and out in the mountains far from roads?
I must admit, on some days, when I’m gingerly playing real-life Carmageddon with my fellow Bay-Staters, there’s a kind of sick allure to the idea of watching Darwinian Forces play themselves out in the skies above, while a certain some of us hunker down in concrete bunkers with our binoculars…
…then my wife gives me “that look”, and I skulk off to the den to Blow Shit Up on my XBox.
