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The Staff of SOH
I'm not sure. It is after all essentially just a car with wings and a fan on the back. If you've got to drive to the airport to take off, then land at an airport and drive home (all for $200,000) you might as well just get a car and a plane!
Personally I don't think flying cars will happen for the general public. The quality of technology will be available, but the quality of the public won't be. Drunk driver bumps into a car on the ground, everyone is fine. Drunk flyer bumps into somebodies wing and breaks off a bit of the wing, everybody dies. Can you imagine everyone in even just a small town going on a family day out on a saturday morning? 2000 aircraft in the pattern!?
Not to mention that I really don't want to share the skies with thousands of other people in my area that kind of thing. Not much fun when it's congested.
Personally I don't think flying cars will happen for the general public. The quality of technology will be available, but the quality of the public won't be. Drunk driver bumps into a car on the ground, everyone is fine. Drunk flyer bumps into somebodies wing and breaks off a bit of the wing, everybody dies. Can you imagine everyone in even just a small town going on a family day out on a saturday morning? 2000 aircraft in the pattern!?
Not to mention that I really don't want to share the skies with thousands of other people in my area that kind of thing. Not much fun when it's congested.
Terrafugia
I saw the terrafugia,at the Sun N' Fun 2009.
That plane is great looking.
If they could make that plane/car fly that would be outstanding.
When I was a kid many, many, many years ago,
I was dreaming that we will have flying cars in the next 10 years.
That was many ten years ago.....
And YES, would it be nice to go to work in a flying car....
and land on your rooftop building!
FUN...
I love it...
Even in a dream!
I saw the terrafugia,at the Sun N' Fun 2009.
That plane is great looking.
If they could make that plane/car fly that would be outstanding.
When I was a kid many, many, many years ago,
I was dreaming that we will have flying cars in the next 10 years.
That was many ten years ago.....
And YES, would it be nice to go to work in a flying car....
and land on your rooftop building!
FUN...
I love it...
Even in a dream!
T
tigisfat
Guest
We shouldn't be so quick to discount the usefullness of flying cars. I do agree that I wouldn't keep it at my house and drive it to the airport, because then it's no different than owning an airplane and a car. I would really enjoy a flying car for the ability to fly anywhere and then have a car there. There aren't always courtesy cars at tiny airports, and when there are, the instructions aren't always clear. I certainly enjoy the prospect of flying to a small resort town or national park airport, and then already having your own comfortable vehicle there.
T
tigisfat
Guest
Just the idea of flying cars is horrifying. People can't even drive on surface streets, let alone highways. It is frightening thinking about people texting while flying.
Kiwi, I normally agree with your points....but I don't understand or agree with these. Anyone who's ever been new to flying multi engine aircraft and received a simulated engine failure while halfway through setting up an ILS in constant moderate chop will laugh at the prospect of saying texting while flying is dangerous. Precision flight while being distracted and needing to manipulate cockpit devices is the stuff flight training is made of. Hell, even normal flight operations in a single engine trainer will have you working more gizmos in the cockpit than you ever would texting (unless you're writing a novel). While I would whole heartedly discourage texting in the flare,
icon_lolthe nature of being PIC means texting has nothing on even tuning the radios. Actually, airline pilots send 'texts' all the time from the cockpit, and so do some military guys.Cell phone useage in aircraft is spotty anyway. You're not guaranteed good reception, even over urban areas, and your phone can have a tendency to search for or hop towers. That drains battery life like mad. That hasn't stopped me from (disclaimer: in VMC with an appropriately rated safety observer) flying approaches off my iphone. There are several apps I use (just for fun only) for GPS backup and to have electronic charts. You're not supposed to rely on them for anything critical, but apps are great for reference and familiarization. A friend of mine called a family member on the phone while flying a B-1 at 22,000 feet and all kinds of wierd stuff was happening to the signal.
Bushpounder
SOH-CM-2024
You can park it next to the flying Pinto. (yes, it was real!)
Don
Don
aeromed202
SOH-CM-2014
I would have few issues with flying cars, provided...
1) Only certified pilots can fly them under the same rules as conventional aircraft.
2) At no time may such vehicle decide to leave the ground capriciously to avoid traffic, etc. (see rule1).
3) The FAA is finally split into two groups, one for promotion and one for safety (with teeth).
I could imagine that a significant segment of aircraft owners or future owners may opt to get one of these instead of a typical plane so perhaps the overall air traffic might not increase if these became affordable, but you couldn't hold these only to ops at airports for long. The pressure would mount to allow them to use all sorts of improvised runways, close to home, work and vacation spots. I'm not sure we are ready for that. You have to consider lots of things if this idea gets serious.
But could you imagine the pre-flight if you were parked downtown for the day? You'd be wringing your hands that you missed something some degenerate did to make you crash. Too much stress.
1) Only certified pilots can fly them under the same rules as conventional aircraft.
2) At no time may such vehicle decide to leave the ground capriciously to avoid traffic, etc. (see rule1).
3) The FAA is finally split into two groups, one for promotion and one for safety (with teeth).
I could imagine that a significant segment of aircraft owners or future owners may opt to get one of these instead of a typical plane so perhaps the overall air traffic might not increase if these became affordable, but you couldn't hold these only to ops at airports for long. The pressure would mount to allow them to use all sorts of improvised runways, close to home, work and vacation spots. I'm not sure we are ready for that. You have to consider lots of things if this idea gets serious.
But could you imagine the pre-flight if you were parked downtown for the day? You'd be wringing your hands that you missed something some degenerate did to make you crash. Too much stress.
Remember, helicopters can basically land anywhere. You dont see them filling up the skies, or landing in crazy places, though they do need to land on roads when people are harmed.
I remember working for the Ferrari dealership here. They would have us picked up via the company helo from the other side of town, we would drop off the girl at the dealership off at the Biltmore golfcourse near her home. We didnt cause any commotions, all was legal and ATC was in constant contact.
People land Cessna's on roads and in fields all the time out in the country.
My thoughts are that if (if) we got organized and the economy improved, we could have sections of side roads that run parallel with major roads that were just for mini aircraft that were able to drive in traffic also, so that they could merge and land at these remote mini strips, blend into traffic and take their exits to their neighborhoods.
It will simply be a bit different then Helo's is all I am thinking. Plus, they will be so expensive and people still need their license to fly them...
Bill
I remember working for the Ferrari dealership here. They would have us picked up via the company helo from the other side of town, we would drop off the girl at the dealership off at the Biltmore golfcourse near her home. We didnt cause any commotions, all was legal and ATC was in constant contact.
People land Cessna's on roads and in fields all the time out in the country.
My thoughts are that if (if) we got organized and the economy improved, we could have sections of side roads that run parallel with major roads that were just for mini aircraft that were able to drive in traffic also, so that they could merge and land at these remote mini strips, blend into traffic and take their exits to their neighborhoods.
It will simply be a bit different then Helo's is all I am thinking. Plus, they will be so expensive and people still need their license to fly them...
Bill
Wing_Z
Charter Member 2011
...that can dive to 1,000ft and mix a cocktail at the bottom, shaken not stirred :d
It was mostly aimed at the 16 year old girls... They can't even drive a car. I don't want to imagine what it'd be like if they flew a carplane.
I too love the idea of flying cars. Being able to drive around in traffic, then at a certain point, transition to flight, climb up to say 6,000 feet, setup auto pilot, and go to the next town would be brilliant. When I was in high school, I did a design study in a class doing a program on the future of transportation. Mine was a flying car that could lift off at roughly 80 MPH, was a lifting body with a few retracting control surfaces. My dream was that it could fly to Catalina Island You would land, drive out to the village below, park, enjoy the beach, the little shops, then get back in the car and fly home. The vehicle had a wierd little turbine / tube fan system for flight mode. I was young, but the dream is still very much alive...
Incredible how some people can only relate 'flying car pilots' to drunks and 16 year old girls who cant drive. I dont get it. But I am greatful that I dont.
Incredible how some people can only relate 'flying car pilots' to drunks and 16 year old girls who cant drive. I dont get it. But I am greatful that I dont.
I did a little freeware flying car a few years ago. This isnt the one from highschool that I did. Dubbed the 'Disco Vollante', Italian for Flying Saucer. This has a 3 rotor wankle behind the pilot with belt drives going to two ducted fans housed on each side of the engine. Slots in the front direct air through the venturi two stage fan chambers, then out over the exhaust slot that runs air over the top of the elevator flap in the rear. Turning was via spoiler flaps on the top sides, and small popout fins in the back sides similar to the V-175 Flying Flapjack. The popouts were only needed on slow flight modes, like taking off and landing.
Bill
Bill