For many years now, scientists and geeks have been trying to create a responsive flying car, it has to look and drive like a car, then spread its wings and fly!
It’s not too much to ask you might think, but it’s proving more difficult in practice, yet there may be light on the horizon. DARPA has announced that they are asking the relevant companies to bid for the contract to build one, they want it ready for 2015 or later, so if 2012 comes and goes without a global cataclysm, then maybe, just maybe we have a flying car. !
Terrafugia, a Boston start-up, has already made history with a 30-second test flight of their “flying car,” which they say is actually more of a small plane that you can drive home from the airfield. The Transition, as they have called it, has folding wings so you can drive and park without damaging them, making it more of a plane you can drive than a car that flies.
Moller International’s Skycar M400 may be the best, it’s not really an airplane and it’s not really a car! It has vertical lift and can cruise comfortably at 275 mph, it looks sleek but more of a plane than a car.
However, Moller’s Nuera M200G could be ready this year (2010), this is more of a hover car that flies ten feet off the ground so no driver’s license is needed, the multiple engines provide thrust and stability. Moller says they don’t see it as an urban vehicle, but as a recreational vehicle that flies low over uninhabited terrain.
They believe it could be a good emergency vehicle for urban areas, especially where medical help is needed and traffic prevents help from arriving quickly.
So the question remains: would you rent a flying car if you could? I could try the Nuera M200G because I like to live in the country and going straight is going to be faster than following the roads, but could I return my purchases?
So I guess having a flying car in the fleet of car rental companies is still a long way off, too bad I’d really like to see that!