Flying Cars Swoop to the Rescue

As motorways become more and more clogged up with traffic, a new generation of flying cars will be needed to ferry people along skyways.
That is the verdict of engineers from the US space agency and aeronautical firms, who envision future commuters travelling by "skycar".

These could look much like the concept skycar shown in the picture, designed by Boeing research and development.

However, such vehicles could be some 25 years from appearing on the market.

When you try to combine them you get the worst of both worlds: a very heavy, slow, expensive vehicle that's hard to use

Mark Moore, Nasa Langley Research Center
Efforts to build flying vehicles in the past have not been very successful.

Such vehicles would not only be expensive and require the skills of a trained pilot to fly, but there are significant engineering challenges involved in developing them.

"When you try to combine them you get the worst of both worlds: a very heavy, slow, expensive vehicle that's hard to use," said Mark Moore, head of the personal air vehicle (PAV) division of the vehicle systems program at Nasa's Langley Research Center in Hampton, US.

But Boeing is also considering how to police the airways - and prevent total pandemonium - if thousands of flying cars enter the skies.

'Gee-whiz'

"The neat, gee-whiz part is thinking about what would the vehicle itself look like," said Dick Paul, a vice president with Phantom Works, Boeing's research and development arm.

"But we're trying to think through all the ramifications of what would it take to deploy a fleet of these."

Past proposals to solve this problem have included artificial intelligence systems to prevent collisions between air traffic.

Nasa is working on flying vehicles with the initial goal of transforming small plane travel.


Next generation small aircraft may look like this Farnborough F1 concept
Small planes are generally costly, loud, require months of training and lots of money to operate, making flying to work impractical for most people.

But within five years, Nasa researchers hope to develop technology for a small plane that can fly out of regional airports, costs less than $100,000 (�55,725), is as quiet as a motorcycle and as simple to operate as a car.

Although it would not have any road-driving capabilities, it would bring this form of travel within the grasp of a wider section of people. Technology would automate many of the pilot's functions.

This Small Aircraft Transportation System (Sats) would divert pressure away from the "hub-and-spoke" model of air travel.

Hub-and-spoke refers to the typically US model of passengers being processed through large "hub" airports and then on to secondary flights to "spoke" airports near their final destination.








Wow, 25 years time before we might see flying cars. This is a huge step in technology. No doubt they will cost a ton when they first come out, what else "big changes" do you think we will see in the next 20-30 years time?

I wouldn't count on it. There are snags with jurisdiction involving the DOT and the FAA. The Moeller flying car is almost ready to go mechanically, by law-wise, operations are all up in the air. On top of that about 98% of the people I'm stuck with on the roads don't deserve to be there. Putting on makeup, talking on the phone, blindly changing lanes, etc. I wouldn't want even ONE of those people careening about the skies, not for a second. They cause enough damage and harm where they are now.

I woudl agree with Der Kapitan.

I get pissed when i'm on the interstate going 60 in a damn 75 because of people on there phones.

HANG UP AND DRIVE!

Ok, now that I got that out, People have being saying this for a long long time now, back in the 50's and 60's people though that deffinatly by the year 2000, every one would have flying car in there garage, they would be dissapointed to find out that half a century later not much has changed.

Well the idea Moller has is that all skycars will be controlled by a remote computer network that does the flying for you. The only part the human would be in control of is takeoff and landing. The current model the M400 is ready to go mechanically but you stil need a pilots liscense (and 500,000) to use it.

those pix looked awful lot like helicopters and planes, just more rounded.

flying cars will always floating around (no pun intended) as the next way to travel, but, frankly, its really hard, makes things a whole dimension harder and complex, and isnt all that worth it. ya gotta land eventually, so you aint saving much.

although, it is easier to drive a joystick with your knees than a wheel.

[edit on 9/23/2004 by Amorymeltzer]

Unless these things have a rock solid self navigation system I don't want to be anywhere near them. People have a hard enough time in this country driving normal cars, do we really want these same morons in the air?

Some people cant even drive right and we are going to give them a pilots license? Imagine a flying car in the hands of a 16 year old? Imagine the chaos.

For pics and more discussion of flying cars you could read this thread already posted here. The flying cars have already been manufactured and flown I believe.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

There are lots of technical details to work out such as the FAA I believe is requiring a pilot's license.

The Moller shycar wl require a "powered lift" pilots license and will cost between 1,000,000 and 500,000 Us dollars for the 1st through 500th.
www.moller.com...
Expected delivery date is sometime after december 31 2006

well, ino in alaska, at 15 or 16, you can get a pilots license. really cuz its the best way to get around, but id be interested to see the success rates there. i bet that death is much more certain if u mess-up they take more care and are more responsible. with luck, that hope would get across to the rest of the youths.

really, though, no big deal. u make it like motorcycles or trucks, u need a separate license. just make the pilots license harder to get, and for separate groups of birds, and put an older age on it. 'simple'

I Think its would be cool to have flying cars. I mean i ain't no 16 year old but it would be cool. We should go along with technology as it advances. Look at levi straus as an example they wanted to make jeans the old way while teens started wearing baggier, more comfortable jeans. That why they are billions of dollars in debt. If they put out the concept of flying cars and people want that then their going to get it and if businesses arn't gonan make the sacrifice to change then they will be screwed!!!!!