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The Coming Air Age

Posted by michael on from the RSN dept.

Lovejoy writes "Sixty years ago in The Atlantic Monthly, Igor Sikorsky wrote The Coming Air Age. "Any of us who are alive ten years after this Second World War is won will see and use hundreds of short-run helicopter bus services." He goes on to write about personal helicopters which fit in large garages and that helicopters that are easier to drive than cars, etc.. So, will personal flight ever be viable? Do wildly wrong predictions like this give futurists pause? I think they should."

5 of 252 comments (clear)

  1. Who needs helicopters... by Jouster · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... when we can have rocket belts?

    Jouster

  2. Not yet ... by nbvb · · Score: 3, Funny

    Personal flight won't be a reality until we figure out how to put skip-lines and double-yellows in mid-air to keep people in line :-)

    --NBVB

    1. Re:Not yet ... by nbvb · · Score: 5, Funny

      General Protection Fault at address x:FE2C y:42FA z:FFFF in module lane.dll.

      Please turn your yoke up up, down, down, left, right, left, right, gas, brake, start to reboot.

      Or, if they're built like anything from Detroit, a big 'ol light would come on that says "SERVICE AIRFRAME SOON" and it'd drop out of the sky.

  3. Re:An experiment... by sielwolf · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hmmm. My personal suggestion is to replace your step three with this:

    3. Beat her like she stole a package.

    --
    What is music when you despise all sound?
  4. Re:An experiment... by AJWM · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... and see how well she does ...

    Just think of it as evolution in action.

    In actuality, most FAA regs are to protect (a) people (and property) on the ground and (b) passengers. They don't really care much if a pilot kills himself (or herself -- although most of the female pilots I've known were a little less reckless than the males) as long as he doesn't hurt anyone else. (Unless, of course, it was a commercially built (vs homebuilt) aircraft at fault. And then they're still more concerned with the other folks who might get hurt by similar.)

    --
    -- Alastair