Flying Car

[Ksandra]

Hope hasn't been posted yet.

The Jetsons are coming~

Flying car takes first successful flight

Flying car takes first successful flight

BOSTON -- A Woburn company unveiled their new flying car Wednesday.

Terrafugia Inc. showed off its Transition Roadable Aircraft Proof of Concept, also known as a "flying car," at Boston's Museum of Science.

The two-seat aircraft is designed to take off and land at local airports and drive on any road.

"This breakthrough changes the world of personal mobility. Travel now becomes a hassle-free integrated land-air experience. It's what aviation enthusiasts have been striving for since 1918," says Carl Dietrich, CEO of Terrafugia and MIT grad.

The price for this new vehicle cost just under $200,000.

The aircraft was founded by five pilots who are graduates of MIT and supported by a world-class network of advisors and private investors.

Vid:

Yahoo!

Now all we need is outfits with rings around them!

[Qalbert]

it was actually developed years ago but Mizango stole it

[Lexa]

The subject title immediately made me think of:
YouTube - The Flying Car

[Demosthenes11]

The subject title immediately made me think of:
YouTube - The Flying Car

lol same

[_chuchu]

it was actually developed years ago but Mizango stole it

Someone posted that one joke about how there are no black people in the jetsons and what a wonderful future it was.

/ontopic pretty cool, if I had the money I'd get me one of these. Do want

[Kaylia]

Car chase are going to be awesome now.

[yayaok]

Someone posted that one joke about how there are no black people in the jetsons and what a wonderful future it was.

lmfao

[Jaybar]

ATCs will be even busier if these become more mainstream, assuming people actually get their licenses.

[pohibaba]

I'm not really interested until it doesn't take an airport to land it at. Unless I happen to live/work at an airport at some point in the future, it's still not very useful for me.

[Jaybar]

Osprey style car would be sweet.

[kuronosan]

What about the mileage? How much does the fuel cost? There's a lot of questions that make such a craft like this not-so-feasable.

[Headspace]

We should just have roadways and cars like in Minority report or iRobot.

[Jaybar]

Probably use kerosene based fuel?

I'm not sure how aerodynamically efficient this Airplar is, but if the design was built to reduce drag along with a lighter chassis, mileage might be much lower than your average single engine plane.

Destination distances would be shorter too (depending on actual street distance to an airport), let alone faster with no traffic, which would also reduce the cost of fuel (and reduce ground level ozone levels), and of course traffic will be low in most medium density population areas (i.e., landing at Class C or below airports).

[Lordwafik]

Doubt it's aimed at people who live in cities, this is probably aimed at the more rural farm areas where people are so spread apart that it takes them forever to go between places, so they could (in the future) lessen that time by skipping over land and then landing on the closest free road available.

[Jaybar]

Can also register for a private grass field if you live in rural areas (or you probably already have a private strip most likely). I think it would be better for people that live in the suburbs (relatively close to an airport or somehow manage to have their own strip) commuting to a relatively small urban populace (i.e. not New York/Miami/Chicago status). I don't think I need to explain commuting and traffic and how much it sucks. Air traffic is very light. Ground traffic is where the delays really kick in, mostly in class C and B airports (Of course, the high density metropolitan airports suck anyway, but you probably won't be landing there anyway).

One of the bigger problems in doing this is planning, and most importantly, weather. Clouds pretty low? Not IFR rated? Well that's too bad. Severe weather nearby? Well that's too bad. Excessive wind shear above ground level? Well that's too bad. Cross-winds too severe for takeoff? You get the idea. There are so many restrictions that if you live in Seattle or Tornado Alley (but not limited to), you can expect shitty weather, and shitty road traffic. Congratulations, you are rated for instrument flying, that's still not good enough.

[Mojo]

Indeed. It's not going to be useful in any way other than leisure.

[Jodwahh]

My skycar is way cooler than your skycar!

::MOLLER::

[thestalkmore]

Problem with the Moller Skycar is that it has been in development for fucking decades and there is still only one constructed prototype that has never been tested beyond hover tests with the assistance of crane suspension.

[Boyiee]

I saw the one on the news a month or 2 ago, the one that landed in water. It was pretty cool, but still not really useful unless doing distances.

We need some antigravity shit or something. This is technology that's been around for a hundred years just reduced in size and weight, there is no real purpose to it for almost the entirety of the population not to mention the price is outrageous. It's just a toy like a boat or a small aircraft, for people that could afford it, and even then, I'd want an actual plane or boat.

[Halleberry]

Lol why did he end the segment like that? YOU MUST PAY FOR THE FUTURE! he seems kinda upset...