Major manufacturers invest in flying cars

www.businessweek.com...

WHOLE NEW INDUSTRY? And yet, a flying car is suddenly less of a pipe dream or the stuff of cartoons. Giants including carmakers Honda (HMC ) and Toyota (TM ) are developing prototypes of small flying devices. Helped by advances in nanotechnology, microelectronics, and robotics, researchers from the likes of NASA, Carnegie Mellon University, and University of Florida are developing new flight-related technologies, designed to make piloting an aircraft easier than driving a car.

To appeal to the mass market, flying devices have to be super-reliable, nearly impossible to collide, and easy to control. "We're trying to make an airplane like a horse," jokes Andrew Hahn, an analyst for NASA in Hampton, Va. "A horse doesn't want to be driven off a cliff. And if you're drunk and fall asleep, it's going to take you back to the barn." So Hahn is developing intuitive, easy-to-operate controls.

This is a an interesting read, even if a bit long-winded... probably the most comprehensive article I have seen on the subject in quite some time.

Sure, the flying car is a long way off. But chances are, cars will eventually fly.

The final line of the article sums it up for me.. the crap they're coming up with right now is hardly practical.

The flying car idea died 9/11. I highly doubt they will become mainstream and that the government would allow them. Some terrorist idiot would use this to blow something up. And how you gonna stop a flying car full of something destructive from being used to crash into a building?

Originally posted by Hoppinmad1
The flying car idea died 9/11.

The FAA has never been partial to the idea of flying cars. It's choatic enough on the streets. 9/11 just makes their case that much stronger. I guess anything is possible, a traitor is the Democratic nominee for president, but flying cars, even if the technology is viable, are not likely to become very common anytime soon.

It would be fun, though.

here's one that works : www.moller.com...

check out the videos .

My old automotive teacher and his class got to see this in person about 2 years before they got one off the ground .

Originally posted by GradyPhilpottThe FAA has never been partial to ... blah blah blah ... I guess anything is possible, a traitor is the Democratic nominee for president, but flying cars ... blah blah blah ... anytime soon.

When did Bush become a Democrat?

Totally off thread I know, but really you should stop insinuating your political views into every other forum. Save it for the Political Forum.

Originally posted by Chuck Stevenson

Totally off thread I know, but really you should stop insinuating your political views into every other forum. Save it for the Political Forum.

I'll say what I want, when I want, where I want. Who put you in charge of the forum?

Woops, no you wont.

Grady: keep the political attacks and trolling to the political forums, it doesn't belong in S&T.

Flying cars in the future will use virtual highways in the sky. They will not fly at 30,000 ft like airliners do. This technology will come its just a matter of time

I read about the technology for flying cars over a decade ago when I thought a working prototype had been built and tested. I didn't expect to fly one anytime soon though because they projected a price decrease to only $100,000 a vehicle when they started to produce more in mass. Even dropping the price to 100,000 a car is way above what I can pay and I don't believe I'm going to win the lottery anytime soon so I forgot about it. It would be nice to fly around on autopilot and not worry about falling asleep. I can see problems trying to fly one on a very windy day especially if there are power lines over the parking lot that you are trying to land on.

Putting flying cars out anytime in the near future would be insane. I know that there are more destructive things out there and they haven't been used in a bad way but you know this would be taken advantage of quickly.
For some reason I just feel this would be a bad idea. Even if the vehicles operated on a roadway in the air it could still be used as a weapon.

Ordinary cars are used as weapons pretty frequently as can be seen in all the car bombings. The only thing that keeps this cars away from the buildings and doing more damage is security and barriers. Now eliminate those barriers and see what would happen.

I would love to see them and would love to use one but for the benifit of all it would be best if they postponed these untill the human race can get along just a wee bit better.

I don't see alot more danger from the flying cars than I see from small airplanes. I suppose if you are thinking of a massive amount of flying cars then there would be a potential for lots more accidents. Flying cars would probably displace small planes at that point though. I guess we need to be careful about just how easy it is to fly one of these. I wouldn't want somone to get skyjacked and then park the car hovering over my house with a bomb on board. From a terror attack point of view, I see high cost and very little damage from using flying cars. It doesn't seem like the best choice unless the target is small. I doubt terrorists could take down a skycraper with a few small commuter planes or flying cars.

Originally posted by Hoppinmad1
Putting flying cars out anytime in the near future would be insane. I know that there are more destructive things out there and they haven't been used in a bad way but you know this would be taken advantage of quickly.
For some reason I just feel this would be a bad idea. Even if the vehicles operated on a roadway in the air it could still be used as a weapon.

Ordinary cars are used as weapons pretty frequently as can be seen in all the car bombings. The only thing that keeps this cars away from the buildings and doing more damage is security and barriers. Now eliminate those barriers and see what would happen.

I would love to see them and would love to use one but for the benifit of all it would be best if they postponed these untill the human race can get along just a wee bit better.

That is an excellent point , peacfull me never thought about that . FAA certification would surely be needed , but the Moller Sky Car I posted a link to was being made with the intent of computer controlled everything ! Type in destination , and then just be alert enough to go manual if needed .

Perhaps some software could be developed ( and encrypted ) to keep these things traveling in certain areas and at certain heights only . There are plenty of open spaces in the mid , north and south west that are available for a straight shot A to B flight that could make use of the higher speed of travel . But we will never see anything like this in any populated area .

If flying cars could be electronically restricted from certain zones that I don't see why automobiles could not be as well. Of course many would argue that only the well to do or upper class would have access to flying cars and the same restriction on automobiles might add lots of cost. Plus the fact that criminals tend to bypass the laws and figure out ways to get around restrictions. From a threat point of view, why is a flying car more dangerous than a small airplane or helicopter? I don't believe small airports have that much security. If you got the money, can't you already have your own personal runway or landing pad that is not at an airport?

This type of technology could be dangerous in the average persons hands never mind terrorists.

Can any automobile give you this scenario? From your garage to your destination, the M400 Skycar can cruise comfortably at 350+ MPH and achieve up to 28 miles per gallon. No traffic, no red lights, no speeding tickets. Just quiet direct transportation from point A to point B in a fraction of the time. Three dimensional mobility in place of two dimensional immobility

No red lights, No road, No nothing to make it safe what would this do...
Boy racers flying through the air with (typical)oversized jet engines at speeds of 350mph plus whatever else they can squeeze out of it.
Even the average car user has at least one accident in a car in their lifetime, now even a minor accident in one of these things would be a cert death.

I just cant see this catching on,theres just so many issues, low flying planes/high buildings/even pedestrians i dont know the main technology they would use to take off and land but my best guess would be some sort of harrier technology, try flying low over someone and they turn into ash.

I never really considered the applications of flying cars in terrorism... good call there.

I'm scared enough of what would happen to an average citizen with one of those things in their hands. I sure as hell wouldn't trust myself with one, and I trust me more than anyone else I know.

Why not have hover cars instead of flying cars? Like cars that hover a couple of inches off the ground and can have great speed and manurverablity.

It's been awhile since I read anything about flying machines as an alternative to cars, but it seems that when I did they were planning on designing it such that there would be an invisible 3 dimensional flight grid that the machines would be locked into. That way there would be no way of flying off into buildings or whatever. Once you selected a destination the autopilot would follow a preset flight path which you could not override. It would be controlled by a computer. You would just sit back and enjoy the view.

I believe this 3D flight grid idea is something the airlines are working out for future pilotless commercial aircraft, as well.

Is it legal for someone to just go flying around aimlessly?

I've been reading about skycars for awhile now. In particular I believe one that has already been made such as this one here www.21stcentury.co.uk...
that has a speed up to 350mph. However nice that seemed to be, I heard later that to get the price to drop to only $100,000 would require a bit of mass production instead of custom orders. Now $100,000 might be cheap for an airplane but for my budget, it's way above and beyond what I could hope for as it is for most people. I guess we can always dream of advanced mass production dropping the price down to normal car prices. Now we just have to get rid of the FAA license thing and the threat of terrorism and skybombs using this advanced technology.

The proposals I have read about sky cars suggest they would be a supplementary transportation system to relieve some congestion down on the ground. There could be predetermined air ways in the sky and computer driven crash avoidance systems. Too bad we don't have anti-gravity systems, that would make this alot easier. On the bright side, I heard they might improve the safety feature of the skycar by adding a parachute for the whole vehicle. Would people pay for a parachute safety feature?

I think hover cars will be the mode of transportation that will evolve to be common. Once they figure out this antigravity thing that is. And they are slowly unraveling that. Hovering would save fuel due to less friction but think of the hovercraft. They had to put the skirt that drags the ground on it to add control. Don't know and don't see it anytime soon.