Guys a few years back a friend of mine showed me a "Popular Science" article were a company was coming out with three different designs for a functional flying saucer. They were kind of like small hovercrafts that were pretty zippy. One had one prop, one had two props, and one had three props. They would carry two passengers and a three hundred pound payload. You could park them and take off from your back yard. They would do 125 miles an hour. Nothing has been heard about them since. Should we complain? They get better gas mileage that a large SUV and are way more convenient. Do we want to pay the FAA to keep track of the buggers? There is a radar problem because of their shape and law enforcement would have to have a few just to keep up. Should we complain? I know that Mad Dog would just absolutely have to have one. And we don't have medication for him yet. :) acaveyogi

I know that I want a flying saucer. I would love to fly, and I like the idea of ultralights too (safer glide ratio than airplane) but another reason is of a personal-spatial nature.

If we had personal airborne transportation, suddenly the "bandwidth" of our highways would mushroom. Even if the airtravel were still restricted to road-like "lanes", we would still have taken the cross-section of our travel path from one-dimensional to two-dimensional. Think of it: Currently, we have to array the travel lanes out side-by-side on flat ground, which costs real estate and severely limits our speed and freedom. But in the air, what would have been 2 lanes on land will now be 4. What would have been 3 lanes on land will now be 9! (Approximately). Once we had surpassed the costs of actually taking to the air, there would be a huge incentive to use its maximum leeway.

I'm all for it, I wouldn't own one, but it sure would be fun target practice. :)

Actually at one time you could get the blueprints to make your own hoover craft, Now Polaris and acouple of others have them for sale. They cost around 4-6000. They don't fly way off the ground but they will go over water, snow, sand, etc.....

hmmmmm......an easy mistake if you're clay shooting

I could be easily seduced with the idea of flying a saucer everywhere I need to go, but realistically I don't think it will happen for a very long time. Yes if done correctly I could see a dramatic environmental impact. On the flip side, over 45K (I think that is the latest number) people die from accidents on American highways per year involving major collisions...how many more people will die when you get road ragers, minivan moms, blind elderly and reckless teens 100ft in the air causing minor accidents and falling to their deaths?

At least the chances of you hitting a deer are considerable smaller. But biochem's right, imagine the scope of one tiny little accident, say, on the third level up. And more than that, do we really want flying saucers skittering through the sky and ruining the view? What about the birds? Raining pigeon crap is bad enough, what happens when the bird itself follows? :)

I've looked at hovercraft for many years. The concept is great, but the manufacturers are unreliable.
I'd love to fly. From what I read in my younger years, by now, we were supposed to be "piloting" flying "automobiles" that flew over fields rather than pounding pavement. Some of what's being talked about here seems like scenes from the Jetsons. There's a whole lot of folks I don't want to see on stepladders, let along piloting a flying vehicle.

I have enough problems with idiots tossing their garbage onto my lawn from their cars. Now I have to worry about it plummeting out of the sky at 500mph?

They's be fun to have as recreational vehicles.
Lot's of people have snowmobiles, but you don't see them parked up at the mall, or people running errands or commuting in them. There are only certain areas you can ride them.

Maybe there would be some type or sporting or racing for them, in designated areas?

Who knows, I'd hate to see how a drivers exam would go in one:eek:

You guys are so intelligent and creative. And so much fun! :) It seems that we as a race and as individuals are constantly having to deal with this question: "It is not that you can do what you can do, it is, should you do what you can do?"

BioChemicalGirl I wanted to be a biophysicist, I took a lot of biology and loved it. When I got to Zoo phys. I found out that I had to do experiments on living animals so I took plant phys. instead and became a botanist, that way all my credits transferred and I graduated with a sixty hour major and no minor. And I am a botanist with a black thumb. :) Honestly! acaveyogi

Well if you all fly through the air, just remember I like to "hang" out naked in my back yard AND I"M NOT GOING TO STOP :eek:

Allthough this sounds like a fun idea look at the privacy we'ld be loosing.

All part of the joy of living near an airfield, right?

Would these flying saucers end up anything like the city scene in The Fifth Element? I think I'd be ok with a little less privacy if my thai food was flown to my window... :)

speaking of driving tests though cree, maybe there'd be manual and automatic saucers - naturally, if you stall then down you go - look out below, hehehe. Death from above could have a whole new meaning! ;)

So what is "In" box 19? :) acaveyogi

Originally posted by acaveyogi
So what is "In" box 19? :) acaveyogi

I'd LIKE to tell you. I REALLY would. But if I did, you'd run screaming from the forum and that would be a waste of good posting! :cool: :)

It is a large picture of Mad Dog sun bathing nude! That would do it :) acaveyogi making a huge detour around Box 19's box!

So mad dog, my question is this: Do you use regular sunblock with an SPF of 30 or higher while sunbathing in the buff, or is it just the traditional stick of butter while being placed on an outdoor rotiserrie and rotated every 1/2 hour for even crisping?

Silverbulletkc;

Beer works good, the butter thing is more for fun. :D

Originally posted by acaveyogi
It is a large picture of Mad Dog sun bathing nude! That would do it :) acaveyogi making a huge detour around Box 19's box!

Now kids, the box is not a toy. It is a state-of-the-art, highly tuned storage device. And any pictures it may or may not contain are strictly classified. :D (oh and by 'classified' I mean, for the right sum of money...:) )

Originally posted by mad dog
Beer works good, the butter thing is more for fun.
yeah true, i'll give ya that one....nothing like pouring beer on yourself while sunbathing nude....kinda like that simpsons episode where homer has the thought of his best day of his life being when the beer truck tipped over and created a fountain of beer for Homer to run through:D

Now we know what gun Mad Dog is shooting flying saucers with. And in the right hand I'll bet it gets a heck of alot of reach. :) acaveyogi

..........i'm not touching that one with a 60 foot pole