That Chevy roadster pickup was a concept that is now going to be available. I'm sure you've seen the tv ad where all the new Chevy's drive onto a car transport trailer.
Where are we going to get the money to build that? Especially with all that money we are pissing down the entitlement ****hole so Grandpa can have free viagra. I don't see it happening.
The Jeep Treo? Here's a shot that shows what it was designed for... urban youth who want to daytrip to the woods on the weekends... Looks like the back is designed to haul various types of gear.
??? Money to build what - the airway network? Funding has already been dedicated to it. It's a fraction of the cost of many other NASA projects, and part of it is already in place. The proof-of-concept has already been going for 3 1/2 years, and should be finished in 2005. They expect it to be mature by 2015. It's a done deal. It may sound zany, but I bet the GPS network sounded zany 20 years ago, but now it's a cornerstone for modern technology. And if you look closely at Moller's company - who built it, how long they've been doing it, there education, experience, background... you'll realize that these are real people who are really driving their product. I think we'll see the first flying cars (just a few of 'em) flying around in about 6 - 10 years, and after the prices drop and the kinks are worked out of the systems, I think skycars will be mainstream in about 15 years (maybe 16). My daughter will be 18 years old by then. Ugh... she may live at home, and fly to college a few hundred miles away every day. That doesn't sound good. -- droxford
That truly is amazing. It took twenty years to finish a 30 mile stretch of rail (a 19th century technology) from Dallas to Plano, but in ten years, an aircar system is going to go from essentially start-up to maturity.
Actually, Moller's skycar is at least 20 years old. Moller has been building the engine and VTOL technology for the government for a long time. In 1965, he built this VTOL aircraft, which actually hovered: In 1989, he built and flew this: . Modern technology has allowed Moller to build a better craft, and the new airway network is a perfect marriage for his hard-to-fly vehicle. Also, according to this link, Moller "predicts FAA-certified production [of his skycar] in three years and anticipates no problem using the Skycar in Canada." -- droxford
I wonder when the first untethered test of a "Moller Skycar" will take place - don't they have to accomplish that before our skies are filled with the things?
from http://www.moller.com/test/ M400 Flight Test Plans Presently all test flights of the M400 Skycar employ a safety tether from above to protect the vehicle from catastrophic failure. Certainly during these early tests there are a number of failure modes with an aircraft that has 24 microprocessors and 25,000 lines of machine language software code. Additional factors that make a tether mandatory include: We are test flying within the Davis City Limits We presently have only one M400 aircraft Our insurance will go up substantially when the tether is not used while flying over land We plan to begin untethered flights when we have at least one additional M400 nearing completion. All flights will occur over a specially constructed lake. This lake is part of the Milk Farm development (see www.milkfarm.net), a commercial 60-acre development underway near the city of Dixon in California on Interstate 80. The lake will have an area of 5 to 6 acres and will be approximately 10 feet deep with a silt, rock free bottom. Most flights will occur at less than 50 feet altitude and will incorporate flotation gear attached to the Skycar. I think this info is a little old - I think they've already done tests at milkfarm, but I don't think they've been untethered. -- droxford
