# Flying car stays aloft for 37 seconds **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 20, 2009, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flying-car-stays-aloft-for-37-seconds/490097 "2009-03-20T00:12:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flying-car-stays-aloft-for-37-seconds/490097/1 "2009-03-20T00:12:58Z")
Woohoo, the flying car is about to arrive: [http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9129931&intsrc=news\_ts\_head](http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9129931&intsrc=news_ts_head) > [@](#): > > March 18, 2009 (Computerworld) Logging 37 seconds in the air, a prototype of a flying car completed its first test flight earlier this month in upstate New York. > > Woburn, Mass.-based Terrafugia Inc., founded four years ago by MIT graduates, reported today that its Transition “roadable” aircraft completed its first flight at Plattsburgh International Airport in Plattsburgh, N.Y. on March 5 with retired U.S. Air Force Col. Phil Meteer at the controls. The short flight was confined to the expanse of the runway, but it was enough to allow the company to test the Transition’s stability and controllability. I want one! (OK, I would need to learn how to fly, but still…) (OK, dammit, the title should have said _Flying car_ etc.) ---
**Author:** ![flyboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/4da419/32.png) [@flyboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flyboy)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flying-car-stays-aloft-for-37-seconds/490097/2 "2009-03-20T00:34:04Z")
This will always be nothing more than a novelty. Enjoy the pictures; I’m guessing you’ll never see one IRL on the road. It’s a great idea in theory, but horrible in practicality. Sorry to rain on your parade! ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flying-car-stays-aloft-for-37-seconds/490097/3 "2009-03-20T00:49:29Z")
> [@flyboy](#): > > I’m guessing you’ll never see one IRL **on the road**. I wouldn’t be looking for one “on the road.” ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flying-car-stays-aloft-for-37-seconds/490097/4 "2009-03-20T00:59:02Z")
Ha! They laughed at the Wright Brothers too! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flying-car-stays-aloft-for-37-seconds/490097/5 "2009-03-20T01:52:39Z")
Well, at least something actually happened in Plattsburgh, NY for the first time ever… ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flying-car-stays-aloft-for-37-seconds/490097/6 "2009-03-20T01:57:30Z")
The flies are inventing cars now? Fuck. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flying-car-stays-aloft-for-37-seconds/490097/7 "2009-03-20T02:03:32Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > I wouldn’t be looking for one “on the road.” Yes you would (I mean, except you won’t). What’s the point of a flying car unless you can drive it on the road? If you never take it on the road why not just get an airplane? What problem does a flying car solve? You want something you can park in your garage, drive down the road to an airport, take off, fly to your destination airport, land at the airport, and drive down the road from the airport to your ultimate destination. If you don’t want to do that, what DO you want to do? Have something you park in your garage, then take off from your driveway? Sorry but that’s something you’re not gonna have unless you get yourself a small helicopter. The military has been trying to perfect VTOL aircraft for a long time and the best they’ve come up with is the helicoptor. There never will be a craft that meets the expectations for a “flying car” unless someone invents antigravity. If you want to fly an aircraft you’ll have to be trained to, you know, fly an aircraft. You can get a light plane today for not very much money. But strapping road wheels to your light plane doesn’t make it a flying car, it makes it a crappy airplane that you can drive on the road. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flying-car-stays-aloft-for-37-seconds/490097/8 "2009-03-20T02:13:47Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > I wouldn’t be looking for one “on the road.” So you know whats going to happen here, this vehicle will be stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, and wont have enough room to take off. Rev 2 will be a vtol. Declan ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flying-car-stays-aloft-for-37-seconds/490097/9 "2009-03-20T02:23:38Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > Ha! They laughed at the Wright Brothers too! 🙂 Yeah but they also laughed at Bozo the Clown. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flying-car-stays-aloft-for-37-seconds/490097/10 "2009-03-20T02:46:10Z")
> [@flyboy](#): > > This will always be nothing more than a novelty. Enjoy the pictures; I’m guessing you’ll never see one IRL on the road. It’s a great idea in theory, but horrible in practicality. Sorry to rain on your parade! Yeah, it’s a cool idea, but I’d hate to get in a fender bender, or even be hit in a parking lot with that fragile and that expensive of a vehicle. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flying-car-stays-aloft-for-37-seconds/490097/11 "2009-03-20T03:00:24Z")
> [@Darryl\_Lict](#): > > Yeah, it’s a cool idea, but I’d hate to get in a fender bender, or even be hit in a parking lot with that fragile and that expensive of a vehicle. Well, it’s a pusher prop, so at least if someone rear ends you, you might have the pleasure of chopping them into hamburger. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MikeG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikeg/32/4329_2.png) [@MikeG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeG)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flying-car-stays-aloft-for-37-seconds/490097/12 "2009-03-20T06:14:22Z")
The Onion a few weeks ago had a sidebar that still makes me grin: > [@](#): > > Dream of Flying Car Briefly Realized ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flying-car-stays-aloft-for-37-seconds/490097/13 "2009-03-20T09:56:56Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > Yeah but they also laughed at Bozo the Clown. 😕 Isn’t that kinda what Boza was \*going \*for? ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flying-car-stays-aloft-for-37-seconds/490097/14 "2009-03-20T10:48:43Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > The military has been trying to perfect VTOL aircraft for a long time and the best they’ve come up with is the helicoptor. Our military have produced [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_4oD-BltCY) 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flying-car-stays-aloft-for-37-seconds/490097/15 "2009-03-20T11:15:32Z")
The first generation will always be only for the truly interested rich early adopter, but if this first generation is a success, then they’ll be able to follow it up with something even better - faster, longer range, etc. Also, the entry bar is quite high, requiring a pilot’s license. And it’s killer feature: no London Congestion Charge! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flying-car-stays-aloft-for-37-seconds/490097/16 "2009-03-20T11:50:39Z")
Who funded this guy? This company is liable to have a pretty short life. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flying-car-stays-aloft-for-37-seconds/490097/17 "2009-03-20T11:54:32Z")
> [@glee](#): > > Our military have produced [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_4oD-BltCY) 🆒 And the US military use them as well. One thing impressive about this demonstration is that they have more realistic goals, a “roadable” aircraft. They’re not looking at a flying car, they going for an aeroplane you drive out of the airport. ---
**Author:** ![flyboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/4da419/32.png) [@flyboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flyboy)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flying-car-stays-aloft-for-37-seconds/490097/18 "2009-03-20T11:58:00Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > The first generation will always be only for the truly interested rich early adopter, but if this first generation is a success, then they’ll be able to follow it up with something even better - faster, longer range, etc. > > Also, the entry bar is quite high, requiring a pilot’s license. > > And it’s killer feature: no London Congestion Charge! 😃 See, this is why it’ll never happen, even after the first generation. The bar may be high, but keep in mind there are _a lot_ of morons in civvie aviation. Aviation is hard enough as it is–rather easy in good weather and calm winds, but a bit dicey in bad weather–fog, rain, crosswinds, low ceilings, wet/slippery runways (streets?), no comms, mechanical difficulties, get-home-itis, etc. That’s when accidents happen. Even if you limited it to a recreational pilot’s license, you’d still have morons stuck in gridlock, looking at the sky and the empty field next to them, thinking, “I can beat those clouds…” And I don’t even want to think about what happens to the preflight on these things–no one wants to preflight their car. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flying-car-stays-aloft-for-37-seconds/490097/19 "2009-03-20T12:08:10Z")
But this isn’t really going to be for people who aren’t already pilots. This will be an added convenience for private pilots who already get around in a C182 but who don’t want to get a taxi or hire car to go from the airport to work. Market these things like that and you may get sales, but they’ll be instead of Cessna sales, not Toyota sales. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flying-car-stays-aloft-for-37-seconds/490097/20 "2009-03-20T13:26:25Z")
If they can change a couple of things, and give me 148 thousand, I would buy one. Get the stall speed down to about 50 mph, so I could actually land on a highway in a gap in traffic and not overtake and crash into vehicles ahead of me. Make it so I could crank the wings up and down while moving on the ground, without stopping or shutting down the engine. Make it easy to trasition from propellor to wheel transmission, again without stopping or shutting down. Then I could take off or land on any almost any highway in a big enough gap in traffic. Yeah, so it would be illegal. I want to see a state trooper who could catch me. 😛 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flying-car-stays-aloft-for-37-seconds/490097.md?page=2)