The future is now

[chuckro]

Where's my flying car?

At a quarter-mil price tag, I don't think there's going to be a huge market for them, but we're getting there. What we really need is someone to design the "Model T" of flying cars--automobiles were once considered an overpriced "plaything of the rich", too.

Comments

[edgehopper.livejournal.com]

What we need even more than that would be a near-perfect autopilot that made driving a light airplane as simple and safe as driving a car. Though I guess if airplanes became commonplace, it only takes 20 hours of flight time to get certified...

At 5 gph, 105 mph, that's about a 21 mpg flight fuel efficiency, which isn't that bad. But it's only slightly advantageous over a car at its speed, ignoring the "fun" of flying. It turns a 5 hour Cleveland-Cincinatti trip into a 4 hour Cleveland-Cincinatti trip, except that it's a little more inconvenient (no easy roadside pitstops). Plus, you've got to build more small airports to take advantage of them. Even if you drop the price to $50K, it still looks like it's just a hobbyist's plane.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

The 5-hour trip assumes no traffic, though. Imagine if you could use it on the Sunday afternoon of a holiday weekend.

But yes, it still has a long way to go.