do you think that the us will ever invent electric powered flying cars?

It's exciting to think about..especially when you're stuck in traffic--the idea of flying cars.

Here's a link about such things, and how some have said that they might be ready for people to own within the next decade.

http://travel.howstuffworks.com/flying-car.htm

and a pic:

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/1061/flyingcarfrontuj6.jpg



It wouldn't surprise me a bit if we don't see hundreds, maybe thousands, of these contraptions in our skies within our lifetimes!

Inventing it looks much easier than regulating it. You can't have people just freely fly their cars any way they want!

Inventing it looks much easier than regulating it. You can't have people just freely fly their cars any way they want!
sure you can! you just need different traffic patterns at different altitudes...and more air traffic controllers...and a way to file flight plans from the drivers seat.

The flying car thing is one big load of crap.

First off, it'd be expensive to own one, very expensive. It'll guzzle fuel and maintenance would not be an option. Something goes wrong in the air and you aren't going to be able to pull off to the side of the road.

THEN there is the fact that a flying car moves in 3 dimentions, not two as a car does. Moving an object through 3 dimensions is not something a lot of people are going to be able to handle. You get a dark night with lots of fog and some idiot having vertigo and thinks he's travelling upwards when he is diving and you've got a recipe for disaster. Liscensing is going to be a long expensive undertaking requiring people to be doing lots of homework. May as well try to get a pilot's license, dammit.

THEN there is the fact that if that car rendova pictured runs out of fuel or if an engine(s) fail, it's going to drop like a rock. The only way they've tested that "flying car" is by very carefully tethering it, that thing has never had a free flight. It's raw engine power that keeps that thing up. Lose that and you've got a missile that will probably plow into a house or a school or something that will cause mayhem. A bird flying into the engine is a very real possibility and engines don't like digesting birds. With airplanes, running out of fuel means you're now piloting a glider, you've got time to look for a place to land. If the engine cuts out on a helicopter, so long as the pilot doesn't panic (again that is something not everyone can do) and lets the chopper autorotate he will have time to bring down the helicopter safely.

As much as I like the idea of having a "flying" car, we're not going to have one that is powered by convential means. It'll have to be some kind of anti-gravity and we're not even CLOSE to building something like that.

Dammit.

The flying car thing is one big load of crap.

First off, it'd be expensive to own one, very expensive. It'll guzzle fuel and maintenance would not be an option. Something goes wrong in the air and you aren't going to be able to pull off to the side of the road.

THEN there is the fact that a flying car moves in 3 dimentions, not two as a car does. Moving an object through 3 dimensions is not something a lot of people are going to be able to handle. You get a dark night with lots of fog and some idiot having vertigo and thinks he's travelling upwards when he is diving and you've got a recipe for disaster. Liscensing is going to be a long expensive undertaking requiring people to be doing lots of homework. May as well try to get a pilot's license, dammit.

THEN there is the fact that if that car rendova pictured runs out of fuel or if an engine(s) fail, it's going to drop like a rock. The only way they've tested that "flying car" is by very carefully tethering it, that thing has never had a free flight. It's raw engine power that keeps that thing up. Lose that and you've got a missile that will probably plow into a house or a school or something that will cause mayhem. A bird flying into the engine is a very real possibility and engines don't like digesting birds. With airplanes, running out of fuel means you're now piloting a glider, you've got time to look for a place to land. If the engine cuts out on a helicopter, so long as the pilot doesn't panic (again that is something not everyone can do) and lets the chopper autorotate he will have time to bring down the helicopter safely.

As much as I like the idea of having a "flying" car, we're not going to have one that is powered by convential means. It'll have to be some kind of anti-gravity and we're not even CLOSE to building something like that.

Dammit.
...what's wrong with getting a pilot's license? every community college in the country has flight lessons...it can be done, dammit.







(i just wouldn't trust a few ppl here with one-you know who they are!)

Not just anyone can get a pilot's license. One has to prove they can fly the plane. That's a bit different than following the directions of some truly bored state examiner.

Inventing it looks much easier than regulating it. You can't have people just freely fly their cars any way they want!
People can hardly drive on the ground. In order to have personal flying vehicles for mass consumption, we'd have to have them operated by computers since that "third dimension" to the navigation is too complicated.

Then again, our cars will be not be driven by humans in due time as well.

All modern flying car designs take the control away from the people in the car, they're all planning on being controled by an AI flight system.

All modern flying car designs take the control away from the people in the car, they're all planning on being controled by an AI flight system.

Thats what I was going to say. It will all be in the hands of a computer, no worries lol.

Not just anyone can get a pilot's license. One has to prove they can fly the plane. That's a bit different than following the directions of some truly bored state examiner.
not everyone can drive a truck either, but you'd be surprised by some of the ppl that do:@@:

actually, it's not he straight ahead part that gets them, it's the turns and backing up.:drive:

If the vehicles will be AI controlled, I certainly hope it'd take very detailed commands in short intervals (as in, if I am flying and suddenly see something coming into view and want to go there, the car will take the new command right away), or else it'd be really annoying riding in it--like a taxi driver who doesn't listen!

do you think that the us will ever invent electric powered flying cars?

Why does it have to be electric? We don't have the battery technolgy to get any sort of range. And the main problem is that batteries are really heavy, which isn't exactly conducive to flight.