Finally, something futuristic! A flying car

[680fbdd1bbddaJDoran]

For everyone like me, who is disappointed that we've made it to 2021 but still don't have the things that science fiction promised us (you know, like teleporters, jet packs, robot butlers, and a cure for stupidity), well here's one thing we dreamed of as kids that is being made possible, flying cars!

"A prototype flying car has completed a 35-minute flight between international airports in Nitra and Bratislava, Slovakia.

The hybrid car-aircraft, AirCar, is equipped with a BMW engine and runs on regular petrol-pump fuel.

Its creator, Prof Stefan Klein, said it could fly about 1,000km (600 miles), at a height of 8,200ft (2,500m), and had clocked up 40 hours in the air so far.

It takes two minutes and 15 seconds to transform from car into aircraft.

In the air, the vehicle reached a cruising speed of 170km/h.

It can carry two people, with a combined weight limit of 200kg (31 stone).

But unlike drone-taxi prototypes, it cannot take off and land vertically and requires a runway."

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-57651843

[680fbdd1bbff6voodoo47]

viable prototypes were popping up for the last decade or so iirc, but I don't think this will ever become mainstream - there is simply no way of making the vehicle cheap enough (you have to use proper quality materials. also, maintenance - you can neglect that with a regular car, because if it breaks down, it just stops dead, but with a flying car, it stops and you are dead), and not everyone is capable of becoming a pilot. and if it's not for the masses, it ain't gonna get cheap.

think a yacht - a lot of people will be able to afford it (and get the licence to operate it), but those will not be your average Joes.


you will need some ground breaking innovation here, like someone finally cracking anti-grav tech. once the car can hover in the air for a few hours (and have a backup system that will land it on the ground gently should the main drive fail), then we can talk business.

[680fbdd1bc1dbJDoran]

Oh yeah, I know that even if these become a common toy of the rich, then they will never become financially viable for the common man. Plus I'm getting so old now that any technology that is going to take more than a decade or two before it's openly available and reasonably priced might well be something I don't live to see. Plus I have diabetes and other system failures that means if I could buy a working, atomically accurate food replicater tomorrow. then I wouldn't enjoy it, as the cakes, ice-cream, well basically anything that tastes nice, would be off limits to me.

Regarding new methods of travel, I would be happy with teleportation, with compatible booths being very common* so that you never have to walk more than a few streets distance before you find one, and all the major shops, pubs, clubs, etc having one on their premises. Life would be so convenient then. Especially if you can buy a sort of 'hammer-space', whereby anything you're carrying can be stored in a rucksack or bag where it's rendered non-heavy and taking up little or no space, as though you're in an RPG game. That would be brilliant!

But let me dream about having a flying car. With guns, invisibility, and an ejector seat. It helps with getting through the day.


* By very common, I don't mean Bioshock's Vita-chambers common, where you pass a new one every twenty yards. That's real overkill.

[680fbdd1bc43csarge945]

Seems more promising then Elon Musk's scam "rocket booster powered" flying car