So, the flying car.

[VirusType2]

The Terrafugia can transform from a roadable vehicle that can hit a highway speed of 65 mph to a winged aircraft in 30 seconds.

The plane version can cruise at about 115 mph (185 kph) and cover about 400 miles (644 kilometers) worth of turf before needing a refill of regular unleaded gas.

The price of a Terrafugia is expected to be around $200,000 and deliveries could start next year, assuming the vehicle passes crash tests. The company has envisioned its vehicle as finding a home with amateur pilots who live near air fields

to be classified as a "Light Sport Aircraft" by the FAA so people eager to fly it would need only 20 hours of flying time.

The Terrafugia, a small airplane that can drive on roads and has been billed as the first "flying car," is now one step closer to becoming street- and sky-legal.

The Terrafugia Transition Roadable Aircraft – nicknamed the "Flying Car" – is a car/plane hybrid. It is designed to drive on public roadways and park in a standard garage, but anyone with a sport pilot certificate can also take to the skies. The FAA just granted the builders' a weight exemption, which allows them to add airbags, an energy absorbing crumple zone and a protective safety cage aimed at road safety. The flying car is expected to be available starting at the end of 2011.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38007469/ns/technology_and_science-innovation/

 

[Sheepo]

Holy shit this product is designed for me!*

*Assuming some one donates me $200,000

 

[MJ12]

This will never take off in the car market.

 

[No Limit]

I disagree, I think these things will fly off the dealer lots.

But pretty slick, being to lazy to read the article right now I wonder if the wing span fits in a driving lane.

 

[unozero]

Every time I read news like this it feels like we are getting closer to the 2nd Renaissance depicted in the Animatrix...color me a nerdy pessimist I guess.

 

[VirusType2]

But pretty slick, being to lazy to read the article right now I wonder if the wing span fits in a driving lane.

Yes. The wings fold up.

Every time I read news like this it feels like we are getting closer to the 2nd Renaissance depicted in the Animatrix...color me a nerdy pessimist I guess.

Well, if it passes a crash test, then it's here. They will exceed sales targets, I'm sure. It's not for everyone, but being a car and an airplane is 2 of the 3 most useful vehicles combined.

Tell you what, turn that shit into a boat as well, and I'll take it.

 

[No Limit]

Yes. The wings fold up.

Well, if it passes a crash test, then it's here. They will exceed sales targets, I'm sure. It's not for everyone. Being a car and an airplane is two of the 3 most useful vehicles combined. Turn that shit into a boat as well, and I'll take it.

Awe, so I couldn't really land on the freeway.

 

[VirusType2]

Yeah, that would be the ****ing bomb. You might be able to pull it off in low traffic. Land on the highway and drive to the service station.

I suppose you will be required to take off and land from airstrips, but there are plenty of those in the US. So you would drive to the small airport and taxi out, bitches.

Oh, **** - stuck in traffic. Hold on, I know a shortcut. There's an airport at the next exit...

it seats 2.

 

[CptStern]

a compact airplane with wheels. still need pilots license plus runway

I was hoping for this instead:

 

[Remus]

Sorry but that's not a true flying car no matter how much they want it to be. it's a small airplane that can also be driven on the streets... Meaning you would still need a runway to takeoff and land. It needs vertical takeoff capability.

 

[No Limit]

a compact airplane with wheels. still need pilots license plus runway

I was hoping for this instead:

Pssh, pilot's license. Who needs that when you have 200 hours of combat experiance (by combat experiance I mean desert combat ofcourse).

 

[Colonel Kernel]

Pssh, pilot's license. Who needs that when you have 200 hours of combat experiance (by combat experiance I mean desert combat ofcourse).

Ms Flight Simulator, what more could you possibly want.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Sorry but that's not a true flying car no matter how much they want it to be. it's a small airplane that can also be driven on the streets... Meaning you would still need a runway to takeoff and land. It needs vertical takeoff capability.

Yeah, see I just can't picture myself saying "Jane, get me off this crazy thing!" in that.

 

[YROC]

Hover Cars > Flying Cars

 

[Stigmata]

CNN.com: Rate Of Civil Drunk Flying Charges To Jump At Least Infinity-Fold In 2011

 

[JUL3]

I was reading Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets before, I was thinking something COMPLETELY different. Haha.

 

[VirusType2]

Vertical take-off requires a stupid amount of fuel. I don't see that happening with current lift technology. Not for consumers.

They are incredibly more complex than a simple plane (which glides and practically flies itself) and require more equipment and training to fly. Not to mention, I don't think materialized (so far) ideas in vertical lift lend themselves to a car-like shape (helicopter blades and turbines).

The plane is ideal because it already needs a vehicle to get it up to speed for take-off and to reduce its speed for landing. So they just put 2 more wheels and some turn signals on it.


Flying is an extremely inefficient method of transportation and it should be avoided whenever possible.

What we need is a 'free' fuel. Lightweight & portable, overly abundant, efficient and relatively safe.

 

[Bad^Hat]

CNN.com: Rate Of Civil Drunk Flying Charges To Jump At Least Infinity-Fold In 2011

I was reading Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets before, I was thinking something COMPLETELY different. Haha.

I read these posts back to back and now I'm picturing some drunken idiot trying to explain to a police officer how the tree came to life and attacked him while he was having a leisurely cruise through the country.

 

[Raziaar]

I wonder if the crash tests include falling out of the sky like a missile into other vehicles.

 

[VirusType2]

First plane with airbags and turn signals.

*flying through the sky*

"wish this guy would stop tailgating me"

"This idiot has had his blinker on for 300 miles"

 

[Remus]

people: Yay flying cars, now traffic jams will be a thing of the past!
government: Flying cars... well we'll have to make the same "air highway" rules apply here as they do with regular passenger aircraft.

*endless gridlock in mid air*

 

[Bad^Hat]

I wonder if the crash tests include falling out of the sky like a missile into other vehicles.

I wonder if they account for turning upside down in a tunnel to drive on the ceiling and then Will Smith falls out of his seat because he wasn't buckled in.

I wonder if they account for objects roughly the size and mass of Hayden Christensen falling onto the canopy with uncanny accuracy after several hundred metres of freefall through a densely populated sky city type environ.

I wonder if they account for speeds in excess of 88mph.

/nerdout

 

[Raziaar]

I wonder if they account for turning upside down in a tunnel to drive on the ceiling and then Will Smith falls out of his seat because he wasn't buckled in.

I wonder if they account for objects roughly the size and mass of Hayden Christensen falling onto the canopy with uncanny accuracy after several hundred metres of freefall through a densely populated sky city type environ.

I wonder if they account for speeds in excess of 88mph.

/nerdout

What, you don't have a team of writers making sure you're safe and pretty much unharmed in every stupid stunt you pull?

 

[VirusType2]

I wonder if they account for speeds in excess of 88mph

It "goes up to 65 MPH on the road", and 115 in the air.

I wonder if the crash tests include falling out of the sky like a missile into other vehicles.

You can fly anywhere, and stuff. Why fly above a road for any length of time, endangering people below (probably going to be a law prohibiting it) And planes generally don't fall out of the sky, they glide.

Also, law enforcement, what.

 

[Remus]

You can fly anywhere, and stuff.

Wrong.

government: Flying cars... well we'll have to make the same "air highway" rules apply here as they do with regular passenger aircraft.

*endless gridlock in mid air*

True that was meant as a joke. However it's almost a certainty they will impose the same rules that currently apply to civilian aircraft. Meaning highways in the sky. So no, you can't fly anywhere you want.

 

[Bad^Hat]

It "goes up to 65 MPH on the road", and 115 in the air.

Did you really just miss that reference, or are you being purposefully obtuse?

 

[Mogi67]

im gonna fly one into space

 

[Dr.Demento]

Bah, it's only a f**king airplane hybrid. Woopdee-doo that stuff is old hat.

Let me know when someone makes a breakthrough in anti-gravity technology that doesn't rely soley on aerodynamic principles of lift and thrust.

 

[VirusType2]

Wrong.

What?

Did you really just miss that reference, or are you being purposefully obtuse?

What is the reference?

Bah, it's only a f**king airplane hybrid. Woopdee-doo that stuff is old hat.

It's the first one being made available to the public. Woopedee-doo until that mother****er flies past you and cuts you off at the light.

 

[Dr.Demento]

It's the first one being made available to the public. Woopedee-doo until that mother****er flies past you and cuts you off at the light.

I'm talking about a real flying car though.

Like one that will levitate on it's own without any kind of propulsion.

 

[Remus]

What?

You can't fly anywhere and stuff.

 

[VirusType2]

What are you on about? Flight paths or restricted airspace? Outer-space? Flying through solid objects? Lava?

Obviously, in an airplane, you generally fly through air, at altitudes the aircraft is capable of, but being mindful to avoid restricted airspace. It goes without saying, I think.

 

[Dr.Demento]

What are you on about? Flight paths or restricted airspace? Outer-space? Flying through solid objects? Lava?

Obviously, in an airplane, you generally fly through air, at altitudes the aircraft is capable of, but being mindful to avoid restricted airspace. It goes without saying, I think.

It's not like you can just push a button and take-off right from the streets. You still need a runway.

 

[Remus]

It's not like you can just push a button and take-off right from the streets. You still need a runway.

That's not what I mean. Although that applies too.

What are you on about?

This is what I'm on about.

people: Yay flying cars, now traffic jams will be a thing of the past!
government: Flying cars... well we'll have to make the same "air highway" rules apply here as they do with regular passenger aircraft.

*endless gridlock in mid air*

 

[Sheepo]

ITT no one knows what any one is talking about and I feel smart because I know more about private air travel than most

 

[Bad^Hat]

What is the reference?

Seriously?

Spoiler

 

[Vermintide]

Vertical take-off requires a stupid amount of fuel. I don't see that happening with current lift technology. Not for consumers.

They are incredibly more complex than a simple plane (which glides and practically flies itself) and require more equipment and training to fly. Not to mention, I don't think materialized (so far) ideas in vertical lift lend themselves to a car-like shape (helicopter blades and turbines).

The plane is ideal because it already needs a vehicle to get it up to speed for take-off and to reduce its speed for landing. So they just put 2 more wheels and some turn signals on it.


Flying is an extremely inefficient method of transportation and it should be avoided whenever possible.

What we need is a 'free' fuel. Lightweight & portable, overly abundant, efficient and relatively safe.

AIRSHIPS, MY LAD

In the future, as I envision it, everyone will have their own personal Zeppelin. It is the obvious way forward.

Let it be known that I , Captain Vermintide, feared pirate of the Pacific Airspace, was the herald of this revolution!

 

[VirusType2]

Seriously?

Oh, right.

God. I saw it 25 years ago.

 

[15357]

AIRSHIPS, MY LAD

In the future, as I envision it, everyone will have their own personal Zeppelin. It is the obvious way forward.

Let it be known that I , Captain Vermintide, feared pirate of the Pacific Airspace, was the herald of this revolution!

That is an awesome, albeit somewhat quaint, vision of the future.

 

[L3N!N]

tbh, I'd rather have those hydrogen-cell cars be released for the use of the general public (along with the installation of hydrogen-stations)

Assuming future technology does not require the use of a runway:

Flying cars seems a little problematic as far as interaction with other drivers goes anyways. It's hard enough to deal with other drivers on the road, flying just doesn't seem practical when done en-masse. However, this is just assuming that flying cars are implemented in a way in which cars are today. It could probably swork, actually. Hm, somebody already commented on this in a similar fashion.

This product used in very rural areas should be handy for the folks in such areas that need it, though.