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50 Comments
- mattcoady, on 05/06/2009, -1/+24Why are we still trying to make the flying car. Have you seen the drivers that struggle with the horizontal axis? Now I gotta look up for crazy drivers as well?
- MaxHeadcase, on 05/05/2009, -0/+17I saw something on TV that said the U.S. tried to develop something like this decades ago, but it was difficult to manually balance the craft. The program suggested that the problem can be solved with computers.
- Justavian, on 05/05/2009, -0/+15"Designed to fly at an altitude of 5 feet".
That makes the whole VTOL claim seem a little dishonest. This is not really a flying car. It's a recreational vehicle. - digitalArtform, on 05/06/2009, -0/+11So now the drunk guy won't jump the curb and crash into my living room, he'll sail over the curb and crash into my bedroom.
- desuexmachina, on 05/06/2009, -0/+11I would also prefer that everybody to stick to wheels until you figure out how to not kill 40,000 a year when you`ve only got two dimensions to worry about.
- masterstghm, on 05/06/2009, -0/+9Wings and fans make "flying cars" just small planes and helicopters. Until they discover anti-gravity, I'm sticking with wheels.
- bitcloud, on 05/06/2009, -0/+740,000 who share the same 2D plane....
- INV3Ntv, on 05/06/2009, -0/+7Meet George Jetson
- rhedrick, on 05/06/2009, -0/+6It's a hover craft - floats on a cushion of air. It doesn't sound like it's actually flying.
- Janizzary, on 05/06/2009, -1/+7Jane, his wife.
- julian02392, on 05/06/2009, -0/+6Not be seen in because of price or because of looks?
I think it looks ***** awesome, personally. - Shreder1, on 05/06/2009, -0/+5If it's affordable I'd be all over it.
- LargeStack, on 05/06/2009, -1/+5Canadians developed thisin the 50s originally. It was called the Avro Car.
- asgardshill, on 05/06/2009, -1/+5Daughter Judy.
- relima, on 05/06/2009, -1/+4His boy Elroi
- GiJoeBob, on 05/06/2009, -0/+3I was expecting the Spinner from Bladerunner.
disappointed....... - Risingashes, on 05/06/2009, -1/+4This is a 1 person hovercraft. Which is, in fact, something that already exists.
More accurately it would be a compact 1 person hovercraft.
It will suffer from the same drawbacks as standard hovercrafts, namely poor braking and relatively low top speeds.
Anyone calling this a "flying car" is woefully ignorant of what a flying car is. This even fails to meet the definition of "hover car" which would be far more suited as a description. - defmer, on 05/06/2009, -0/+2we need production cars...had enough of concepts....we see so many concepts every year.....but the same old ***** cars being launched year after year.......and even if one makes it out....it never makes it to USA (where there are more cars than ppl).......so why the ***** even bother designing a concept.
- amitforu78, on 05/05/2009, -1/+3wow.. thats gonna make things cool.
- swizzcheez, on 05/06/2009, -0/+2Sounds a lot like the avrocar... 'cept maybe it'll actually work.
- UrineEngineer, on 05/06/2009, -1/+3No you look at your RADAR.
- MOJIRA, on 05/06/2009, -0/+2Its a hovercraft, as in the type that we've had for decades... it doesn't fly, it hovers with that rubber ***** on the bottom; 5 feet in the air is the seat, not the entire thing.
- spriggig, on 05/06/2009, -0/+2This is just a toy for the rich, not a practical vehicle and certainly not a "flying car".
- inactive, on 05/06/2009, -0/+2I wonder if the extra efficiency of using a centrifugal fan which all the blades are always working makes up for the extra weight of the skirt and all the crap to control it.
- liuite, on 05/06/2009, -0/+2let's call it Yo-yo 2000 or Y2K for short
- nullcodes, on 05/06/2009, -0/+2It's wearing a skirt does that mean it's a girl flying car?
- RANDOM667, on 05/06/2009, -0/+2Wow it uses fan blades to move air for lift!
roflcopter!
Give us anti-gravity and inertial dampeners already!
And throw in some force fields and energy weapons while your at it! - LargeStack, on 05/07/2009, -0/+2Ya you are right now that I think about it.
- desuexmachina, on 05/06/2009, -0/+2I completely disagree, at least with the Ever sentiment.
I certainly don't want flying cars in the near future however, all that would be required is to perfect collision avoidance computers in two-dimensions. Take the wheel from the idiot and drunken humans and see what happens. - NSResponder, on 05/06/2009, -0/+1Seems to me that the skirt wouldn't have to be very heavy, and looking at their web site, the controls look a lot less complex than a helicopter's.
-jcr - julian02392, on 05/06/2009, -1/+2So it looks delicious too, win/win situation!
- inactive, on 05/06/2009, -0/+1they would not let everyone fly this any more than a plane or helicopter.
- Myonosken, on 05/06/2009, -0/+1The car industry will put in lots of funds if this technology became viable.
We all love hoverboards which work on the same technology.
====> Pretend it is for flying cars. - runner1, on 05/06/2009, -1/+2Before the flying car can ever be practical another means to lift and support it's mass other than aerodynamics MUST be developed.
As it stands today whether you use jet engines, piston engines, or rotary engines and turbines, helicopter blades, or enclosed fans like this. You are still lifting mass by moving large quantities of air around. This takes too much mechanical engineering as well as too much energy consumption by burning some type of chemical fuel. There is just too much that has to be just right to fly in this way, just one thing goes wrong and BOOM you just made a nice crater in the ground.
To make the flying car really practical there will have to be another way to get mass off the ground.
There has been some research in this area for many years, but usually it is considered fringe science, many people and companies distance themselves from it the moment you use the term Anti-Gravity, so call it whatever you want, Mass Reduction, Electro-kinetic lift or even Magnetic field lift. (In Star Wars they called it Repulser- Lift). The Point is there has to be another way to get in the air, if it exists It's just waiting for someone to discover it. Only then will we see real flying cars. - trav6, on 05/06/2009, -0/+1well keep in mind that this is the first step...imagine what they will come with in the future
- FlyinRyan89, on 05/06/2009, -0/+1Yea, this definitely would not work in the United States.
- NSResponder, on 05/06/2009, -1/+2The Avro car didn't use a centrifugal fan. It had multiple enclosed axial fans.
-jcr - NSResponder, on 05/06/2009, -1/+2"40,000 who share the same 2D plane."
It's worse than that. They're also squeezed into very narrow paths on that surface, with lanes moving in opposite directions, often with nothing but painted lines to separate them.
-jcr - AFHeretic, on 05/06/2009, -0/+1Jacque Fresco had much better designs.
- NSResponder, on 05/06/2009, -1/+2What I'm wondering is how the centrifugal fan compares to axial fans or conventional rotors when it comes to noise levels. It seems to me that it should be a lot quieter.
-jcr - Kstha1, on 05/06/2009, -1/+1oh boy...this is NEW? lol..righttt
- jkoke, on 05/06/2009, -3/+3Sigh. There will be no flying cars for personal use. Ever. Sorry to burst your bubble, but humans are not capable of driving regular cars safely, in 2D. On roads. Do you really think we'll be allowed to take to the air?
- inactive, on 05/06/2009, -1/+1looks. reminds me of a doughnut. I eat doughnuts, I don't fly them.
- untouchableLENS, on 05/06/2009, -0/+0I'm pretty sure that's no why they put them there.
- NSResponder, on 05/06/2009, -1/+1We'll get flying cars when we're able to make them robotic, which is actually a simpler problem than navigating a car on the road. The vehicles will be safe for a drunk or a child to use.
Tell the computer where you want to be, and it will get you there using GPS, and land using ground proximity radar. Once you've arrived, you can tell the vehicle to go wait for you somewhere else.
If you want to fly it yourself, you can grab the controls, but the computer will keep the vehicle within safety limits (like not letting you steer it into the ground or another aircraft, or do any maneuvers that would exceed the structural limits.)
An iPhone already has far more computing power than you'd need to control a flying car. Inertial sensors are cheap. GPS receivers are cheap. Low-power radar is cheap. The last things we need to develop are engines that are powerful, reliable, and cheap enough for daily use in the air, and there are some pretty good candidates that exist.
-jcr - Marrach, on 05/06/2009, -2/+2 I'm a nay-sayer on flying cars. We have enough idiots behind the wheels of regular vehicles-- and at least on the road, we have parked cars, rails, trees and other obstructions between Us & our Homes and the Fickle Finger of Vehicular Death.
Airplane and Helicoptor pilots have to be trained and tested and follow flightplans and accepted flightpaths. The Aircars of the future that every Geek is hankering for would be the same as putting any dim-witted joe-schmoe behind the joystik of a Raven Clipper and saying: Have Fun!
What if the aircar is swooshing over you when it has a major malfunction? Oh yeah-- I'm sure that when it plows into the Main Street shopping entrance that the pilot/driver will be instantly safeguarded by the latest in automatic Passenger Protection technology.
But for the family of four who got chopped up by the intake fan? But for the five people on the other side of the street who took shrapnel through the chest and torso when said Fan Housing disintegrated on impact? But for the Grandma on her motorized wheelchair who got caught at ground impact when the thing came down?
Sorry! If they ain't got no insurance to cover Death by Improperly piloted AeroVehicle, that will just be their '*****-Out-Of-Luck" Day.
In my books-- the only way we should even THINK about personal Aero-vehicles is when the Steering Wheel is Outlawed and replaced by Central Traffic Control.
Problem with that is-- People will think of that as flat-out UN-American! - slapded, on 05/06/2009, -3/+2People can't drive in 2 dimensions, let alone 3.
- Laminarcissus, on 05/06/2009, -5/+4NO! NO! PAUL MOLLER IS THE ONLY PERSON WHO CAN AND EVER WILL MAKE A FLYING CAR!!!
ONCE HE TESTS IT OFF TETHER WE WILL ALL BE FLYING TO WORK!!!
*** VISIONARY ***!!!!! - asgardshill, on 05/06/2009, -3/+1They put the / and s characters on your keyboard for a reason. Use 'em.
- inactive, on 05/06/2009, -4/+2Looks like something i would not be seen in!
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