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Did you order your flying car yet?
- Thread starter Doctor Q
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At first glance that looked like Bill Gates! But he probably has assistants to fill his flying car for him.
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Wow, that sure does.
I find it interesting that the Skycar from Moller International has never come to fruition. I figured by now we'd see something.
Personally, I think I'll go for one of these!
Looks like they got FAA approval.
Pretty cool. Engadget says it should be released sometime next year for $194,000. Only 2 years late and $46,000 higher.
Pretty cool. Engadget says it should be released sometime next year for $194,000. Only 2 years late and $46,000 higher
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That's a little expensive for my budget, but if they come out with a Matchbox version I might buy it.
Speaking of which, here are some Matchbox cars flying. At about 1:28 one of them flies through the air but ends up parked neatly in line with the other cars!
Speaking of which, here are some Matchbox cars flying. At about 1:28 one of them flies through the air but ends up parked neatly in line with the other cars!
Wow, that sure does.
I find it interesting that the Skycar from Moller International has never come to fruition. I figured by now we'd see something.
Personally, I think I'll go for one of these!
I thought the Robinson R-22 helicopters that I flew were small!
The Moller skycar has been a running joke among pilots at least as far back as when I was a student pilot in 1996. He had this vision that anyone would be able to get in and take off/land anywhere they want. The FAA will never allow this. Maybe he helped get the FAA to allow the Light Sport license, although that is still on a completely different level than a driver's license. Anyone who says you can get a sport pilot license in 20 hours isn't telling the whole story. That is the minimum time required to take a check-ride, but most students will need more time than that.
Even for the Transition, how do you calculate maintenance schedules for a car/plane (change the oil every 100 hours [like a plane] or 3000 miles [like a car], whichever comes first)? Do you need a yearly state inspection in addition to the FAA annual inspection (if you fail the state inspection, is the Transition still considered airworthy to fly)? If a friend asks for a ride somewhere and says they will pay all the costs, do you need a commercial pilot license (assuming you don't just drive the whole way, in which case your friend would probably just drive themselves) which then also requires an FAA class II medical? If it is getting dark and you haven't reached an airport, can you continue on (assuming you have at least a private pilot license and an FAA class III medical)? Other than your local airport (where you presumably would have a gate pass to enter the runway area) how do you drive from the road side to the runway side of an airport's security perimeter? Do you log the entire time of a journey in the air and ground, or just the time that you actually flew in your pilot's log book? Do you need to keep both the FAA maintenance and ground mechanic maintenance records with you or just the FAA ones in case of an FAA ramp check? There are a lot of issues that aren't really technical problems, but with the FAA involved they do become your problems.
You still can't get the Terrafugia flying car. From one of their news releases:
To appropriately set expectations and adjust our scheduling margins based on recent experience with suppliers and other key third party contributors, we feel it is necessary to extend our anticipated first delivery date to late 2012.
Maybe we'll have to travel on a HeliVector instead.
And what would stop someone from strapping a bomb on themself and flying one of these things into a buildling?
I know, cars and vans should be Outlawed too, people can so easily make a bomb and put it in a building.
interesting... i hope they make the test insanely difficult for whoever applies for this type of license.