Flying car gets OK for highway use...

The advantage over a plane plus a car would be?

How many people have two airports on their commute?

 

I remember reading articles about this flying car when I was a kid. I saw a discovery/science channel special about it a couple years back and they are still working on it...

I am just waiting until 2015 when I get my hoverboard.

 

Good ol' Dr Moller. His magic sky car has been nearly ready for production for over 40 years but never really flown. What is has done successfully is suck investors money out of their pockets

Read this and see what smell you get
Moller International - Davis Wiki

 

Nope, around here they just land on the nearest body of water. I don't think I know anyone more landlocked than a mile or two.

 

It's Moller Skycar. He was the guy behind the Disco-Jet, Trapp and Super Trapp mufflers so he has produced real products. By most accounts though, the Skycar and earlier versions have been a means of getting investors money for two-score years with no return.

What military stuff?

 

Will NEVER happen. Mark my words. Mark them!

When yahoos start commuting in planes, I will go back to the practice of law. Think of the accidents!

Seriously, weren't we trying to reduce the use of energy, not unnecessarily waste it? It is so much more efficient and safe to drive a car on the road 100% of the time, rather than put it in the air.

The problem with these is the same problem as with sofa-beds: While as a sofa they are not as comfortable as a regular sofa, as a bed, they are much more uncomfortable than a regular bed. The worst of both worlds. A less efficient car, and a less efficient plane in one. It's two, two two gas guzzlers in one!

:rant:

 

Also, I forgot to say: NEVER!!!

 

so what happens when a gust of wind hits it broadside?

 

It flies.

 

It's two, two two gas guzzlers in one for the price of 18 conventional gas guzzlers.

It's a major technical achievement. A solution in search of a problem.

To the companies credit, it's real instead of vaporware. There may be a market for it, there are people around with enough money to buy a toy like that. Unfortunately for the company, I think most of people spending that amount of money expect something that is very good at what it does for that price, not the transportation equivalent of a sofa-bed

I have worked with people that commuted to work by plane, they kept beater cars at one or both airports to travel between residence and airport or airport and work. They were far cheaper and far better cars to drive home or to work in commute traffic for the instances when weather kept them from flying. Also much more useful for running around at lunch hour, etc.

To the companies credit, it's real instead of vaporware.

 

is it a ford anglia?

 

It's been done - 70 years ago.

[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerocar]Aerocar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

Here's one problem, a big one: What happens all the time? Fender dings. Ding a car's fender, other than cosmetics, it's a non-event.

Ding an airplane, even slightly, and you don't have an airplane anymore, you have something of little practical utility. And you don't fix an airplane ding with bondo and a buff. You cut open the damaged structure and splice in new airworthy structure, ALWAYS a very expensive procedure, like any surgery. We just brought home today the Aero Club's Piper which had been accidentally maneuvered, by HAND, not under power, into protruding hangar walls & doors. Total bill to fix: $4000.

I look at that intricate, pencil thin, featherweight front suspension on the Terrafugia and cringe at how vulnerable it is to just getting banged against a curb trying the park the thing.

You'd do as well trying to build a combination nuclear submarine racing yacht.