23 Comments

1. Roderick Reilly:

Depression-era America (and Europe for that matter) saw dramatic progress in aviation. The Douglas DC-3 was designed during a 5-day train trip from California to New York.

Jan 14, 2009 - 3:12 pm 2. El Gordo:

Lawyers out of work or out of fashion? We are literally governed by lawyers.

Jan 14, 2009 - 3:34 pm 3. lc:

I notice a heavy emphasis on the public service aspect — it’s bound to suffer a long, slow, tortuous and expensive eventual death. In spite of DARPA’s successes (and interesting controversies)….see National Endowment for the Arts.

Jan 14, 2009 - 3:48 pm 4. JAK:

“It’s interesting to speculate whether someone, now out of work, is conceiving the next big thing.”

That is something that has nagged at me of late, the absolute waste of human capital that is the auto industry.

Jan 14, 2009 - 4:01 pm 5. RWE:

It’s fun to look at the ads in old aviation magazines from circa 1945. One of the most memorable shows a elderly man and his wife returning home from a trip. He is settling down for a snooze in the spacious carlike cockpit, saying “Just follow the needle, honey, and wake me up when we get close to home.” They are flying along in a sleek pusher aircraft that looks like a cross between an AMC Pacer and a Douglas B-42.

Those were incredibly optimistic times. The greatest war ever fought was being won by feats of technology that anyone could see, and that did not even count jet propulsion, microwave radar, and nuclear energy, all of which were hush-hush.

The airplane I own was built for the “Everyman” pilot in February 1946. And they were coming off the assembly line a rate of ten per day.

It never turned out to be that cheap, that popular and especially, not that easy, but you really have to admire their spirit.

Jan 14, 2009 - 4:52 pm 6. steeple:

As cool as this sounds, can you imagine the mess this could create? Teenagers buzzing low over homes. Mid air collisions while people are flying around texting. I’m not sure how happy I would be to see most drivers around here get airborne.

Jan 14, 2009 - 7:03 pm 7. sirius_sir:

Whatever happened to teleportation?

Jan 14, 2009 - 7:04 pm 8. steveH:

Looking at the video…

I assume that they expect to refuel every 15 or 20 minutes. There just isn’t that much space for and engine *and* fuel.

It’s going to need a lot of power for vertical operations as shown, and that’s going to mean high fuel consumption rates, pretty much has to be a turbine engine.

Jan 14, 2009 - 7:13 pm 9. Michael M. Butler:

I’m skeptical of actual fuel / loiter / payload capability of the shown aircraft, or anything closely resembling it. Not to mention adaptability to wind gusts and microbursts.

Jan 14, 2009 - 7:31 pm 10. Insufficiently Sensitive:

That is something that has nagged at me of late, the absolute waste of human capital that is the auto industry.

The Auto industry? Good God, compared to any government-supported arts program, the auto industry is a world paragon of the production of human benefits, with mobility AND styling all in one package.

And back in the 50s, there was a wonderful science fiction story of an East-block scientist who despite his relentless diet of red cabbage soup, invented and marketed a personal flyer. Never mind how it rose and flew and traveled horizontally, those details needn’t concern us here.

Said flyers were marketed successfully I recall, and everyone and his brother bought one and freely filled three-dimensional space with personal journeys to and from work and all other human endeavors. And the crowds of such flyers in urban areas became a magnificent and hilarious problem. Then this east-block country strapped its whole army into these gadgets, and off they went like a huge cloud of hornets to conquer the West. Which fought back by sending formations of propeller-driven heavy bombers flying straight at the levitating heroes…

Anyone remember who wrote that, and where it was published? Likely in some issue of Astounding Science Fiction, but that long ago.

Seems like this nifty yellow flying multifan device would run into some congestion problems of its own, mass produced in our over-densified society. Imagine the kibitzers over the big game stadiums. Imagine the Bloods and Crips having it out in drive-by style. Imagine an International ANSWER mob going after the Enemies of Obama. Life’s going to get interesting, so stick around.

Jan 14, 2009 - 8:21 pm 11. Dave:

Er, fellers: Let us pretend that all technological problems have suddenly been solved. Now we come to the insoluable (as far as I can see) problem: Air traffic control.

Vehicles will have to drive to designated takeoff points and wait in line for their turn. Then they will have to strictly adhere to specific flight paths, and then wait their turn to land at designated points.

The skies can get pretty crowded with 100 to 400 passenger aircraft. Can you imagine what it would be like with from 40 to 100 times as many aerial vehicles up there?

I got a better idea. Tell Scotty to get the transporter room working.

Jan 15, 2009 - 12:15 am 12. barry 0351:

As long as there are fanatics willing to fly into buildings and other targets selected by their god/gods/goddesses there will be NO flying cars.

Jan 15, 2009 - 7:23 am 13. Harry:

“As cool as this sounds, can you imagine the mess this could create? Teenagers buzzing low over homes. Mid air collisions while people are flying around texting. I’m not sure how happy I would be to see most drivers around here get airborne.”

That’s why we have lawyers, to protect us from everything. And we can get paid for it too!

Jan 15, 2009 - 8:04 am 14. Austin:

Yes, of course there would be problems with air traffic control, daredevil teens and texting flyers. I think you forget that practical technology brings with it the evolution of the technology and habits that regulate it and keep it safe. My grandparents drove home from town in straight lines across fields; roads got cut later. Traffic signals, speed limits, and vehicle inspections only developed out of the need the new technology created. So the new flying cars will be sold originally to rich heavily regulated few. Then they will develop failsafes, autopilot, and complex vehicle networking to maintain space between cars so that I can take off from home not the designated take off zone. We are in the end self regulating, it simply does not develop until the technology forces it to. Have hope, we can solve all your flying car concerns; We just will not know how until someone makes a flying car.

Jan 15, 2009 - 8:22 am 15. RWE:

Insufficiently Sensitive:

I recall that story. I think it was in Analog or Astounding in the late 50’s. What happened was a Soviet scientist, desperate to publish so to justify his work and be able to afford red cabbage soup, came up with an article about how the particles in the tails of comets repulse one another. The USAF had just did a publicity stunt with a new jet bomber and hauled several tons of powered milk over a long distance at a record setting speed. Desperate to come up with a publicity counter, the Soviets touted the comet particle study as the greatest discovery of all time. Then people started thinking and found you could make a personal flying pack using those principles. The Red Army was equipped with the flying packs, whereupon they all left, went to the West and traded the packs for vodka and wristwatches. Unable to prevent their population from leaving, the USSR fell apart. The Soviet scientist emigrated to the West, where he got a nice position with a university but complained that he never could get any good red cabbage soup any more.

Note this really did happen in a way. A Soviet scientist published an obscure article that led to the U.S. developing stealth aircraft. The ability of such aircraft to penetrate any air defense was shown in Desert Storm. After the Berlin Wall came down, Red Army troops found they could go to the West and trade their AK-47’s for vodka and wristwatches (really!). Unable to defend itself against air attack and with an army that was mostly drunk and in jail, the USSR fell apart.

Steeple: I’m with you! I was just up flying and finally gave up and came down. There was someone in the airport pattern flying such a huge circuit that I gave up after 20 min. And that was someone flying under the current rules and requirements!

Jan 15, 2009 - 8:45 am 16. Tinfoil Hatter:

As a former professional aviator, I’d say there is more chance of the U.S. giving its UN Security Council seat to Brazil than there is of the Jetson-Flying-Car-Future.

Much of it is simply intellectual. Most people really don’t think in three dimentions, and only after expensive training is one really good at it.

Perhaps if its fully automated, it would work. We’re then talking about massive bandwidth needed for the links between the massive computers needed to control the airplanes and the massive computers needed onboard the aircraft to insure highly dynamically unstable aircraft fly, with the levels of redundancy that the general public would require.

Jan 15, 2009 - 10:35 am 17. Me:

Traffic control would be no more cumbersome than ground traffic control. Except one glaring benfit, no perpendicular intersections. You nay sayers have small minds.

Jan 15, 2009 - 11:01 am 18. Insufficiently Sensitive:

Much of it is simply intellectual. Most people really don’t think in three dimentions, and only after expensive training is one really good at it.

Perhaps if its fully automated, it would work. We’re then talking about massive bandwidth needed for the links between the massive computers needed to control the airplanes and the massive computers needed onboard the aircraft to insure highly dynamically unstable aircraft fly, with the levels of redundancy that the general public would require.

I disagree. This invention is as good as cellphones, and as with them, our fledgling teenagers will adopt and out-utilize and out-imagine us all. Once they’re available, all the most earnest well-meaning top-down Public Good ‘regulations’ will not avail against the freehand operators. As with AK-47s and computers, there will be shops everywhere turning out counterfeit illegal patent-busting copies, and the happy chaos in the skies is practically guaranteed. Perhaps every family should invest in a nice 12-gauge shotgun to defend hearth and home against these carplanes (and against the football-sized models which already exist, and have the ability to fly up to your upstairs window and broadcast TV images of your doings).

Jan 15, 2009 - 11:05 am 19. Andrew:

“The Auto industry? Good God, compared to any government-supported arts program, the auto industry is a world paragon of the production of human benefits, with mobility AND styling all in one package.”

There is no doubt in my mind that the gov’t should stay the hell out of the arts however I wonder how many people are employed in government-supported arts programs versus the auto industry and how much financial support they receive versus the auto industry. I doubt they are comparable.

I come from a GM town. Seeing all those people paid exorbitant wages and benefits to waste their lives in a vegetative state, constantly encouraged to do less work for more money with fewer responsibilities borders on criminal in my mind.

Jan 15, 2009 - 11:19 am 20. kaba:

Wouldn’t this be the voyeur’s dream? Flying over the privacy fenced yards of neighbors or cruising past the windows of tall buildings to see who might be doing a big no-no.

Jan 15, 2009 - 4:08 pm 21. Tomorrowist:

Flying Scmlying. We already have planes that fly themselves; with smoother landings. What we need are cars that drive themselves. You drive to the highway, press the merge button, and wake up when the car tells you its time to exit.

Jan 15, 2009 - 10:28 pm 22. John Moore:

Tomorrowist just beat me to it. I want my car to drive itself! Look at all the time wasted driving.

Flying, on the other hand, can be fun, and when it isn’t, they have had autopilots for a very long time.

Jan 16, 2009 - 5:54 pm 23. John Moore:

Flying cars would have to be highly (and reliably) automated. That same automation, combined with modern advances in radio communications, sensors and GPS, will allow automated air traffic control – which would of course be an absolute necessity.

On the other hand, when I was young (’50s), we were promised personal flying cars by the ’70s. Oops. On the other hand, nobody expected the internet or the PC.

Jan 16, 2009 - 5:56 pm

Sorry, comments for this entry are closed at this time.