Where Are the Flying Cars?

Ponca City, We Love You writes "Complaints of the non-existence of flying cars as expressions of disappointment in the failure of the present to measure up to the glory of past predictions have long been a staple of popular culture but all that is about to change when Terrafugia introduces their $148,000 "Transition," a 19-foot, two-seater that the company describes as a roadable light-sport aircraft. The problem is that the U.S. doesn't have the infrastructure in place to make landing in front of your house a viable alternative yet and a sky filled with people who don't have pilot's licenses could also be a problem. The idea is to take advantage of the 6,000 public airports in the U.S. so a pilot can fly into a small airport (video) and instead of getting a rental car, just fold up the wings on the aircraft and drive away. Terrafugia expects the first production model to be ready in 2009 and says they've already received advanced orders for 30 to 50 Transitions."

Comments

Re:Huge blind spots when driving

[mcrbids]

Lets get real, I've seen plenty of "licensed" drivers, lawyers and doctors who do NOTHING like what one would expect from the magical, mystical papers called "diplomas" and "licenses".

Sorry if I don't agree even though I agree.

A license is not a guarantee of competence. It's a promise of having at least a decent chance at success. I mean, just because somebody screws up after getting a license doesn't mean that the license did no good - it just means that the state has intervened enough to have a reasonable assurance that you *could* succeed.

As a private pilot myself, I think that the requirements for being a pilot are, if anything, not severe enough. When you factor in the enormity of the sky, landing an airplane at a smaller airport is a very, VERY precise maneuver, even with a fairly inefficient spam-can like a Cessna 172. You have maybe 50 feet of vertical space that you have to be dead-on-the-money within, or you'll either go around or die trying. And you'd better know what you're doing well enough to recognize when things aren't going right and get out of there for a go-around.

Yes, it can be quite dangerous (lethal!) unless you know WTF you are doing. Yes, it's intense.

And yes, it's a hell of a lotta fun! =)

But don't think even for a minute that the license does no good. I initially was skeptical of all the information I was pumped with, but about 2/3 of the way through to getting my private, it dawned on me that this wasn't about remembering some facts for a test, it's about saving my silly neck from certain death.