Why the flying car may be too much for humanity

The founders of a company called Terrafugia are undoubtedly very, very clever.

All graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, they formed the company four years ago with the aim of creating The Transition, a car that flies--not merely in the speed sense of "flies," but rather in the "takes off and does things planes do" sense.

The initial flight is planned for the end of this month or some time in February at an airport in upstate New York.

I am worried, not so much because I am suspicious of flying but because I am suspicious of people.

It's bad enough right now to trundle down a freeway and watch a demented Ford Focus or homogeneous SUV swerve from lane to lane, as if it were a supermarket trolley driven by a child. It's bad enough averting one's eyes when grandpas are crawling in at least two of the three available lanes, picking their noses and humming to Sinatra.

But can you imagine the things you tolerate on our roads and freeways being multiplied a thousand times in the air, at considerably elevated speeds?

This is an interesting picture. I think it's from some museum in Seattle.

(Credit: CC Sol Young)

The Transition costs a mere $148,000, which means that there will be enough wealthy bad drivers willing to invest in this latest form of one-upmanship.

The inventors, being very, very clever, are aware of the problems.

"We're not going to have a flying car, as people think of it, for a while," Anna Dietrich, Terrafugia's chief operating officer, told Computerworld. "I would never say it's not going to happen, but today, the infrastructure is not there, nor is the training, nor are the avionics that would make the training unnecessary. What makes sense right now is a 'roadable' aircraft."

But what may not make sense is that these wonderful machines may fall into hands of crass destruction. Terrafugia (isn't this Latin for "I'm running away from the earth"?) has already received 40 orders.

Who are these orderers? Can we trust them? Who is going to breathalyze these people, if they break the speed limit? And to what new forms of air rage might these pilot-drivers resort?

Before Technically Incorrect's diligent and astute commenters tell me to down a Diazepam, I will cease worrying of my own accord. I know that the new Obama administration will have already considered the potential consequences of flying cars. I know that education programs are already being funded to avert the worst excesses of airborne humanity.

Must fly. I want to miss the traffic.

[Michichael]

Who needs sunspots for power outages. Just wait for the idiot yacking on his cell phone to get creamed by power lines!

[RickBee]

I'd hate to have to worry not only about getting creamed from the side or behind, but also from above?

[ChrisMatyszczyk]

Or from below, RickBee

The possibilities are fabulously scary.

Chris

[eBob1]

I suppose that an SUV might be homogeneous if it were in too many accidents! Many SUVs are more humongous than homogeneous.

[ChrisMatyszczyk]

Honestly, eBob1,

I really did mean homogeneous, as most of them look the same to me.

Even the humongous ones.

Chris

[dr. know]

--->""" I know the new Obama Administration will have already considered the potential consequences of flying cars. I know that education programs are already being funded to avert the worst excesses of airborne humanity"""<---

HA HA HA HA HA!!! I have some beach front property in Brazil to sell you.....

[ChrisMatyszczyk]

dr,know,

Where in Brazil? Minas Gerais, perhaps?

Chris

[emeshuris1]

psha, get over it, when cars came out, people were worried.
Even when trains and boats came out, some did not want to ride.
I'm sure some of you were eve scared of toothbrushes and can openers when those came out.

[Kev_Orng]

Funny, I was just thinking yesterday about how humanity is not ready for a flying car as I was dodging bits of snow and ice that were flying from the roof of the SUV in front of me.

It seems like many drivers just clear a little spot on the window to see through and hope the wind will take care of the rest. But when visibility drops to zero as the plume of snow from some lazy motorists engulfs my car, I think, if this idiot had a flying car, he'd be crashing into my windshield, not just obscuring it.

And assuming an ice-laden vehicle could even stay in the air, pedestrians would be dodging icy detritus from the sky all winter long.

So, uh... Don't be a goof - clear your roof!!

[ChrisMatyszczyk]

Yes, Kev,

There really are a lot of thoughtless nutters on the roads. Just think of what that might look like in the sky.

Chris

[Lakebook]

http://www.terrafugia.com/video_outside.html

[dburry]

Stop worrying as long as the FAA and pilot's licenses exist and it requires so much expensive training to get them.... Only when it becomes the "learn from your dad" thing do we need to get worried.

[ChrisMatyszczyk]

dburry,

But the 'learn from your Dad' phase might come on very quickly. And then think about how much your auto insurance will go up...:)

Chris

[nukepicnic]

okay, this thing is a PLANE with the learning curve and the pilot's license and all the things that come with aviation... the only thing this is replacing REALLY is the rental car at the airport.

[tacit]

Relax. This isn't a flying car--it's a drivable airplane. You need a pilot's license to fly one.

[stevepo67]

The photo is indeed from a museum in Seattle -- the EXCELLENT Museum of Flight next to Boeing Field (BFI for all you pilots).

http://www.museumofflight.org/

I'm may be a little biased because I live in the Seattle area but I highly recommend visiting this museum if you're in the area and at all interested in aviation (I'm a private pilot). It's my 8 year old son's favorite place to go with me. Not only do they have this flying car (which really did fly) but also a Concorde, President Kennedy's Air Force One, an SR-71 Blackbird spy plane, two fantastic floors of World War I and II planes and a new Space exhibit where you can land the Space Shuttle or Lunar Lander and walk inside a full-scale mock-up of a portion of the Space Station.

[ChrisMatyszczyk]

stevepo67.

Thank you. I thought it was. But I like to choose my pictures in a slightly eclectic manner, so I'm glad someone who has been there can corroborate my guesswork.

It sounds like you and your son have a lot of fun there.

But if there are all these cars flying around the Seattle skies, will they have to put traffic lights on the Space Needle?

Chris

[billmosby]

***? Just because some new aircraft will be roadable in some way does not mean that a wholly different population of crazed flyers will be taking their deficient multi-tasking skills into the air.

However, I have seen an SUV or two homogenized on the Interstates around here, so at least that part of your article has an element of truth to it.

[sethum1]

To reinforce what others have said:

This vehicle is for licensed aircraft pilots ONLY

You should be no more worried about being hit from above by a "roadable-aircraft" than you are for being crushed by a 747.

[t8]

Al Qaeda have 500 on order.

[sedgehammer]

A sport pilot license after only 20 hours of air time doesn't exactly give me much comfort as far as rich dumb drivers go. Of course, such drivers are probably already clogging both our skies (in a 'normal' small plane) and our roads (in whatever luxury vehicle they prefer), so I don't see that much more to fear in the combination of the two.

[kboateng]

I too agree that there really isn't much worry because unlike driving a car, one could not just teach their son how to drive or maneuver an aircraft/plane and then the child would get a license just like that. It would have to go through a professional regimen and even then if everyone started flying cars or whatever there is much more aerial landscape than here is terrain so the congestion we see with cars would not be the same. At the same time the collisions and casualties would be higher, unless some sort of futuristic measure was invented to make aerial collisions a lot safer.

[schorn01]

These aren't going to be falling out of the sky on us any time soon because first, they have yet to get any Into the sky in spite of frequent statements that first flight is just around the corner. Nor are they likely to meet their price projections which have ratcheted upward (currently a bit under $200k) and are likely to go up even more. Building a roadable aircraft is very difficult; building safe one for this price and weight limitation of 890 pounds empty is nigh on to impossible. (Consider that most factory-built conventional LSA aircraft are selling for around $130k) Nor is the FAA going to give up their fairly stringent requirements for pilots' licenes, which fact cuts out a huge portion of casual would-be aerial commuters. Flying requires a major commitment of time and money and motivation, even for LSA.

The roadable plane pictured above is the Taylor Aerocar. These were built next to the airport in Kelso, WA where I learned to fly in the late 50's. When Moult Taylor dropped in one day to fuel his plane, I asked my flight instructor what he thought of the Aerocar. "**** poor car, **** poor plane" was his reply. While the MIT types have done some admirable engineering work on this project, the compromises required to have a car sturdy enough for the road yet light enough for the air ensure that my instructor's words will remain true for a long time to come.