This hour’s random desktop background on my #MacbookPro is this A2A shot of the Terrafugia Transition. They were way to far ahead of the “flying car” curve.
When it first came out (can’t remember the exact year), I went to Oshkosh and pitched the company on a free advertising/marketing package from my ad agency in trade for a very early slot in their order book. Thankfully, that deal never came together.
@Av8rdan Wow, I hadn't heard of this before, but from the Wikipedia page, it sounds like a disaster. Slower than a 172 in flight, slower than a Honda Civic on the ground, more expensive than both combined and probably less controllable than either, and downright goofy-looking in its folded configuration.
Flying cars sound nice in theory, but when you get down to it, the use cases seem vanishingly few.
@LouisIngenthron Correct on all accounts, Louis. I think I might be dead before we see actual flying cars zooming people to work. Not sure, but maybe they need to get autonomous CARS right first before they try airplanes. I know they are getting closer every day, but creating an airspace system where flying cars automagically whisking people thru the air can co-exist with actual airplanes seems like a lift too heavy for this FAA.
@Av8rdan I mean, we basically do already have autonomous airplanes, right? How much of a passenger flight is actually done with a pilot holding the yoke? 15 minutes?
It's just an easier engineering problem to solve: fewer obstacles, all electronically tagged and tracked.
I feel like, if we do get flying cars in our lifetimes, they're going to resemble quadcopters more than airplanes, especially because those would be more efficient for short-range local flights (where they could potentially even stay in class G), and wouldn't need runways. But then you still have the problem of where the hell do you park it?
@LouisIngenthron @Av8rdan I agree that flying cars are going to be quadroters. That feels close.