I was perusing the moring news today and a company out of California has come up with a personal flying machine , that the makers think will become a normal mode of transportation someday. This raises some questions on things like cost, safety, and air-traffic. Apparently they are putting this thing up for sale on e-Bay and expect it to fetch upwards of a million dollars USD.
Could this thing really take off and be the next big thing? Or is this just another cockamamie invention set to fail before it begins? Here is another link with better photos of the craft.
I have said this before, and I say it again. People have a hard enough time managing two dimentions involved with driving a car. Add the third one to the mix and there will be idiots dropping from the skies.
If personal flying devices ever come to pass, I will never leave the basement.
Well said. Gore Vidal’s father was involved in promoting a car that could transform into an airplane back in the '50s. In fact, there was a sitcom of the time called “Love that Bob!” (starring Bob Cummings) in which Cummings onwed one. It was envisioned as the transportation of the future.
Didn’t happen, of course.
That said, I think traffic congestion may drive us to personal flying machines. It sure would be cheaper and easier to add another upper level air traffic corridor than it would be to build a new road every time the developers go nuts.
There already exist several operational options. However, as already pointed out by particlewill, the skies would be incredibly dangerous if ever these were actually marketed. I am sorry that even though several news articles have been published about at least one of the flying cars, I can not recall which magazine it was, although I think it was either Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, the New Scientist, or Discovery. Those are the ones that I enjoy reading anyway.
But, to be quite honest with, owing to the high cost associated with these machines, it will take a very long time before anything other only the really rich people would be able to afford them, anyway. The rest of us would have to wait for the second-hand versions to hit the air.
Watch Star Wars Episode II and just imagine trying to fly in that condition…
I think that more people should own personal aircraft (as can be inferred by this thread); but based on what I see on the freeways, I doubt most people have the capacity to learn how to fly safely. Those that do, however, should.
There are major problems with personal flying devices, as others have noted. They tend to be complex, for one thing. That means they’ll be expensive. And someone who can afford to buy one can also afford to hire a chauffeur.
Safety is also a factor. Not only driver error, but also mechanical failure. To keep them running, you need to constantly check everything’s all right. People won’t want to bother; hell, most don’t service their car.
There are other problems. Weather, for one. You wouldn’t want to run one of those things in a storm; controlling them would be a bitch. And if it’s a cold day, no one’s going to be up in the air buffeted by wind.
So you’d end up with an expensive device that you can only use occasionally. They may be used for certain tasks (the talk about military use is possible – assuming you’re fighting the war in good weather, of course), but they are just too expensive and impractical for general use.
There was an IBM TV ad a few years ago that made the very valid point that the internet has/will obviate the need for flying cars.
The idea being that as virtual communication becomes better, there will be less and less need to get someplace. You can see this already happening, as video conferencing has had a massive upsurge in popularity since 9/11 because people are afraid to fly.
So no, I do not think personal flying vehicles will become the norm in 10 years, if ever. I think it far more likely that people begin to live their lives entirely online before they start flying around town.
My first thought of a use for the solotrek was search & rescue, or surveying fire lines in forest fires. The flying cars could be used to drop fire fighters in remote places as they need less clearance to land than helicopters.
The bigger problem that I see with the Solotrek is not private ownership but business ownership: TV stations. Can you imagine having four or five of these things buzzing around all the major cities?
Attach it to a Segway, give it an optional submarine case and now you got something - I think I too saw reports we would all be using these to get to work by no later than 1960.
Another vote for the hazards of three-dimensional travel barring practical use of PFVs. Even this thing, which is relatively slow, could be tremendously dangerous. Drunk drivers do enough damage to trees and such, imagine adding the element of altitude! How about terrorism? It would be really, really difficult to shoot something this small out of the sky. :Shudder: Given the choice of Sci-Fi-type technologies, I’d prefer a method of travel more similar to The Fly than The Jetsons.
I think the liability cost of personal aircraft will make them too expensive for use by anybody but the most rich.
When your car breaks today, you come to a nice smooth stop along the side of the road. If your more complex, more likely to break PFV breaks, you plummet to the ground. Your surviving relatives will rub their hands together, twirl their moustache tips, and happily call a lawyer to sue the manufacturer.
The manufacturer will therefore have to charge a huge amount of money to offset their legal costs and the PFV will be too expensive to purchase.
This is the current model for the light plane industry. I was told, sorry no cite, the nearly half the sticker price of a new light plane is not parts & labor but instead legal expenses.
Got mine 4 years ago. Hang glider, and it didn’t cost me a million.
posted byRealityChuck
There would also be a need for new or expanded regulation & support agencies: operator training & licensing, the “sky cops” (with their own reality TV show), insurance/liability, qualified service/maintenance mechanics, etc. Eg; all the hassles now associated with owning cars.
I know an ultralight pilot who has flown to the grocery store & back (there was a suitable empty field behind the store to land/take off in), but that’s about as close to “general use” as I’ve ever heard of first hand.
“Recreational” aviation is already available, in the forms of small aircraft, hang gliders, paragliders, ultralights, sailplanes, etc. A person doesn’t necessarily have to be rich, but does need to have the judgement & maturity to approach such activities with the proper attitude: get good training, maintain the equipment, obey the rules, and fly safe. After comparing these recommendations with the driving I see on the roads, I’d say personal aviation is exactly the wrong mode of transport for 99% of the population.
I’m sure people used to say that cars were too dangerous for general use about a century ago. Now we know that they are. But that hasn’t stopped us. And it probably won’t stop us with personal aircraft.
I agree, there are thousands of dangers to using these things, but stick a drunk behind the wheel of a car and IT becomes just as dangerous.
Having spent a great deal of time in Arizona - one of the hang gliding capitals in the US - I realized flying is not something people should avoid. I got my hang-1 lisence the first year I was in Arizona, bought my first hang glider not long after. Soaring around the skies - risky as it may be - is second to nothing, when it comes to thrills. Sky diving has it’s 10 seconds of glory, bungy-jumping even quicker - but actually flying through the skies for hours on end with a good thermal, nothing beats that.
I think flying machines will be like any other fad once they become legal to use. They will start off difficult to obtain, only for the wealthier clientel, then as with everything else, their prices will drop, the design will get better, and everyone will have one. 70 years ago satellites orbiting our planet were mere figment of peoples dreams. Then Arther C. Clarke invented them in one of his Sci-fi novels, and the government asked him to consult on their developement… I think PFM are not going to be dreams for long.
If we can develop a safe, clean, abundant energy source, and if we can develop AI powerful enough to do the flying for us (and to set the thing down if a problem is about to occur), then possibly something like this might come into common usage. But it’s a long way off, if ever.
Gravity is a harsh mistress, indeed. The thought of the same people I see on the roads flying around above me and my property scares the poo-poo out of me!
What worries me is that half the world’s population is below average