For as long as time people have been fascinated with the idea of flying and with the dawn of the automobile age came the fantasy of the flying car! So here an article for all us dreamers everywhere, which maybe of interest:
One of our favourite notions here at Vulture Central is that of the flying car. Ideally this would be a true sci-fi-style job, backed up by an equally puissant automated air-traffic infrastructure. In such a machine you could simply jump into your car outside your house, quietly lift off vertically, fly somewhere even in bad visibility and congested airspace, and set down again equally vertically. Then you could drive/taxi your astounding hover vehicle into the garage, underground carpark or wherever – or simply park it on the street.
Sadly, the nearest approach offered by current technology is the helicopter. Whirlybirds are noisy, dangerous, expensive and difficult to fly. They take up a hell of a lot of room, too, in the contexts both of airspace and manoeuvres near/on the ground. They aren’t going to turn into flying cars any time soon.’But honey, your mom doesn’t have a runway’ – it won’t wash any more. Credit: Benjamin Schweighart
Jump-jets like the Harrier are even worse, in that they can’t at present get airborne vertically with a useful load.
Source: The Register [VIA] Slashdot
by Patrick James.
