So, you agree that the ability to drive it on roads is not an essential feature of a flying car?
Nope. My understanding is that it was shown doing so in the 1985 series and in The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones movie. Many cars in the 1985 series backgrounds have wheels, in fact.
By flying to visit grandma, do you mean drive your flying car to a local airport, log your flight plans, pay for runway usage, then fly to grandma’s local airport, and then drive to her house?
Depends on whether you are talking about flying cars the dream or flying cars the transportation.
Many flying car inventors conceded that the dream was impractical, but thought that having the equivalent of a private plane, only with more function, was appealing. This was especially true after WWII when so many returning soldiers had some flight training. The craft were touted as being convertible in a matter of minutes, barely interrupting the journey. Few if anyone were so foolish to market a flying car to lift into the sky in the middle of a traffic jam and soar away. War pilots knew too much about the idiosyncrasies of planes.
Although flying car is the omnipresent public term, people in the business make a distinction between a flying car - an automobile tricked out so it can fly - and a roadable aircraft - an airplane with a undercarriage that allows movement on roads. You will almost never hear roadable aircraft outside the specialized community; the term has no familiarity, let alone magic. A Google ngram shows that “roadable aircraft” has barely been mentioned at any time since the start of the 20th century except for a slight bump in the 1940s, whereas “flying car” use has soared since 1990.
The best history of flying cars in the 20th century is Flying Cars by Patrick J. Gyger. Available pretty cheaply on eBay.
Look ma… no wings!
If we’re talking about things that we were promised in the future, I think I’d prefer a jet pack.
At $300K each, I predict they will not be flying off dealer’s showroom floors in any great quantity.
And that’s before the inevitable cost growth when they try to actually make and sell the things.