Gravis Wrote:
>
> just so you know, they did actually make a flying
> car.
Eh-hemm. they are making flying cars, and NASA's got us covered! Read through and see where NASA says Personal Air Vehicles would make sense in areas like Tysons Corner to the mixing bowl. Read on... Facinating
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20060010178_2006010366.pdf
Personal Air Vehicles/Personal Air Transportation
Emerging Technologies along with the Integrated Autonomous digital Automatic
flight-capable Airspace just briefly described enables serious [re]consideration of
Personal Air vehicles. Such vehicles have been considered periodically at least
since the 1920’s but were never deemed feasible – due to a combination of piloting
requirement
and technology shortfalls. The current PAVE requirement set
includes a Combination of fly/drive to avoid the necessity of airport utilization /
major capitol investments and to avoid having to buy two [disparate] vehicles.
Other requirements-to-nice to have include < $50K, Super STOL [< 30M
takeoff length], and of course Automatic operation.
Three generations/classes of such vehicles are probable. The/an initial version
could be Robotic Package delivery using UAV’s, largely via civilian application of
Military UAV investments. Once this is proven safe the UAV’s could become
passenger-carrying , evolving into PAVE vehicles. An initial PAVE/Passengercarrying
UAV could be relatively modest in terms of air-side capability but
tremendously useful/popular – a 2 carriage 100 Kn device to address the
“Commuter” mission. The intent is to not let them fly “downtown” [the vision of
many thousands converging on a sporting event is simply “not on” for awhile –
quite a while], but there are now Myriads of “Satellite” semi-urban areas [e.g.
Tysons Corner near Washington D.C.] where their Air Operation should be
feasible, including bypass of the nearby infamous Interstate Intersection termed the
“mixing bowl”. The third class of PAVE would have greater speed, range and
carriage, including, with a few “pit stops”, Intercontinental Operations. There
simply is FAR more [3-D] Airspace available than hyper-expensive and often
highly congested [1-D] ribbons of concrete.