It's 2008 . . . where are the flying cars?!

[GuanoLad]

@Martini_Enfield

(Somewhere I have a quote attributed to someone important at the US Patent Office in 1898 or thereabouts, to the effect that everything that can be invented had been invented already)

I looked it up. It ain’t true.

[Magiver]

@shallora

Okay, maybe this has already been asked, but:

It’s 2008 . . . where are the flying cars?!

It came and went. Nobody wanted them. The most successful was the Taylor Aerocar and they only made 6 of them. I didn’t realize until today that only 4 of the first model were built. I saw 2 of these flying together at an air show in florida years ago. I think they’re both in museums now.

Aaaanyway, the problem with flying cars is the cost versus utility of the vehicle. compromises have to be made to make a road-worthy car fly. The end result will be expensive and neither vehicles will perform well.

Although I did see 2 new flying car projects at Oshkosh this year I doubt they will live up to the cost involved. the most practical thing I’ve seen is the para-sail dune buggy cited above. that would be a great thing to tow behind an RV and it would be affordable. I can imagine driving around the Grand Canyon and then taking a quick spin with the car-plane.

[Airman_Doors_USAF]

Given the caliber of drivers on the road right now, do you really want them to be able to fly? You think real estate values are depressed now? Wait until 20,000 houses a year burn down because the people in the flying cars are just as bad in the air as they are on the road.

[Johnny_L.A]

@Magiver

taking a quick spin with the car-plane.

Perhaps a better choice of words…

[Martini_Enfield]

@GuanoLad

I looked it up. It ain’t true.

I figured it wasn’t, hence the “Attributed To” disclaimer in my post. It’s still a useful piece of apocrypha to have handy for discussions of the “Have we invented all the useful stuff?” type, though.

[Magiver]

@Johnny_L.A

Perhaps a better choice of words…

:smack:. In my defense I don’t think you can spin a parasail but I’m not volunteering to find out.

I have to admit I actually got excited at the idea of a parasail car. It actually makes sense as a personal toy. Unlike the Moller car which seems like a complete pie-in-the-sky fantasy car which will never see daylight.

[Sage_Rat]

@Lumpy

Lastly, I think there’s a broader reason for why we didn’t get the predicted “gee-whiz” future. And that is that many of the startling technological advances that took place from the mid-nineteenth century to about the mid-twentieth fell into the broad category of mechanics. That is, the conversion of energy into mechanical power through appropriate machinery, especially applied to transporation. And my radical theory is that we have now invented most things that can be invented in the field of mechanics.

I’d agree that we probably have, until we discover new materials and/or get the current set of space age materials cheaply produceable, and until we create decent AI. Both of these will open up a wide range of new mechanical capabilities, but it’s unclear when these can be expected to occur.

[flex727]

@Snnipe_70E

I can see that there are few tht remember the Jetsons.

Forget flying cars, I want one that folds up into a briefcase!

[Johnny_L.A]

@flex727

Forget flying cars, I want one that folds up into a briefcase!

How about a compromise?

A flying motorcycle.