Twisted Sifter:
Though cartoons and other Hollywood imaginings from the past definitely figured flying cars would be the wave of the future, the idea can still seem more like science fiction than reality.
No more, however, because there are engineers (and one Elon Musk) out there determined to make it happen.
The new flying car, which features a Tesla battery pack that allows it to stay airborne for up to 20 whole minutes, claims to be the “future of air travel” as we know it. The car (plane?) can travel up to 63mph and, thanks to US regulations, needs no license at all to operate. MORE
The original flying cars were killed because one of their customers crashed because he miscalculated his fuel.
This will be 100x worse with batteries.
https://www.motortrend.com/vehicle-genres/aerocar-history-generations-models/
It’s not a car at all. No wheels, no road operability. It’s a drone large enough for 1 person to sit in. Rosie, Oprah, and Whoopi are left counting their money and filing discrimination charges as it’ll be a few years before version II can lift 300+ lbs.
Alaska already has flying cars.
Search Alaska car launch to see for yourself.
(I think they need to rename the event after the Biden Administration personally but I’m not an Alaska resident so I get no say)
Here is another one that has been in development for 40 years. Most people can’t navigate a 2 dimensional space, let alone 3.
https://moller.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moller_M400_Skycar
There are a lot of individuals out there who don’t have what it takes to operate a toilet plunger and hand a guy a clean hand towel, and yet they have driver’s license. This should help to thin them out a bit. Anything airborne is much less forgiving than a mode of transport that is earth bound.
There was also the Pinto Plane. There were stories about it on Network TV newscasts. There were cover stories about it in news magazines as well as in car magazines and science magazines.
Then it crashed, killing the developers.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/43549/the-tragic-story-of-the-flying-ford-pinto-ended-exactly-how-youd-expect
Funny story about that. My brother worked evenings and would get home at about 1 AM. I was a senior in high school. He popped his head into my room and told me that the Pinto Plane had crashed. Once that happened, it was like the Mission Impossible team was captured. Everyone disavowed any knowledge of it.
Nine days later, my brother popped his head into my room at 1 AM and told me that Jim Croce had been killed. Next morning, in fact all day I could find now mention of that anywhere. My brother had off that night and at dinner I asked him, “Did you pop into my room last night and tell me Jim Croce had been killed. And a few days ago did you pop into my room to tell me that the Pinto Plane had crashed? I haven’t been able to find anything about either of those so was I dreaming it, or did you tell me those things?”
Way to drive somebody crazy.
Car? That’s a car as much as a 737 is.
Insurance prevents ‘flying cars’, because they are far too dangerous. Only way they will happen is if they are fully autonomous – you plug in the destination and it flies you there. Meanwhile, of course, there will be fun vehicles like this to play with – but in the countryside, not near population.
190 pounds? A quick search for “Tesla Battery Pack Weight” yeilds one-thousand two-hundred pounds.
Ultra,
Light
Um, no, yeah. Not a flying car. It’s a manned drone.
They’re smashing into one another in two dimensions.
The reason you don’t need a license is because it isn’t built to carry a passenger
All singleseat flying vehicles are in that category.
Singleseat helicopter? You’re good to go. No lessons.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Yecu2ce9VbM
@RadioMattM
You should have locked your door when sleeping, it may have saved a few lives.
I want one of those flying Ramblers from “The Man with the Golden Gun.” AMC had all the bugs worked out!
As an avid fisherman, I can actually see this as being something a shore fisherman would use, to hop from pond to pond, backwaters or bayous, etc. Those hard to get places where the fish have rarely seen a lure.
I win again!
In the promo video we never see the Jetson flying for more than ten or fifteen seconds at a time. I think that’s the battery life.
I see big problems with flying cars. I suspect too many of them (hell, two is too many) will collide and fall to the ground or they will malfunction and fall to the ground. There are big risks to those flying them and to innocent people they will hit when they crash-land. FUI will become a thing, but will be enforced only if a drunk survives a crash.
I build and fly RC electric planes. They are a lot of fun, but you have to “add lightness” which is to say they need to be made efficient. One thing that rarely gets mentioned is that electrics have a weight penalty due to the battery and unlike gasoline or jet fueled planes, they don’t get lighter as the fuel is used up! My airplanes can glide (as most do) and be landed when they lose power. Not so with a drone… you have to have power to land.
There’s an old saying: “There is no gravity, the Earth sucks”
Have a failure or a collision, and you’re in it, yer gonna find out real quick how badly it sucks!
Old news….been building them for years.
20 minutes or 63 mph. Max pilot weight 50 lbs?
Aero car goes way back.
Bob Cummings flew one in his show in 1950s
https://youtu.be/Erj_mz30SDI