Flying Car update

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themanintheseersuckersuit
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Flying Car update

#1 Post by themanintheseersuckersuit » Fri Aug 08, 2008 7:52 am

Flying Car Promised in 2009

The Transition "Personal Air Vehicle" is expected to be released in late 2009 and has just shown its operational prototype.

The estimated purchase price is $148,000. Owners will drive the car from their garage to an airport where they will then be able to fly within a range of 100 to 500 miles (800 km). It will carry two people plus luggage and will operate on a single tank of premium unleaded gas. It will have a 115 mph cruising speed.
Suitguy is not bitter.

feels he represents the many educated and rational onlookers who believe that the hysterical denouncement of lay scepticism is both unwarranted and counter-productive

The problem, then, is that such calls do not address an opposition audience so much as they signal virtue. They talk past those who need convincing. They ignore actual facts and counterargument. And they are irreparably smug.

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Beast the Slacker
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Re: Flying Car update

#2 Post by Beast the Slacker » Fri Aug 08, 2008 7:56 am

themanintheseersuckersuit wrote:Flying Car Promised in 2009

Baloney! We had one in 1985.

Hey, just 7 more years till the Cubs win the World Series!

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MarleysGh0st
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#3 Post by MarleysGh0st » Fri Aug 08, 2008 8:05 am

As that web page says:
The real market for these vehicles is solidly in the hundreds of units per year. So they are not replacing cars but light sport aircraft. They are toys for the wealthy. This is an airplane first, and not a replacement for anybody's car.
I believe these "drivable airplanes" have been around--if none too successfully--for a long time. There's a big difference from that and a flying car that you could take to the air when stuck in a traffic jam.

Of course, the FAA would have fits about any flying car that could open up the airspace to masses of drivers. And they'd have felt that way even before homeland security became an issue.

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ne1410s
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#4 Post by ne1410s » Fri Aug 08, 2008 8:14 am

Of course, the FAA would have fits about any flying car that could open up the airspace to masses of drivers.
You mean those scenes in "The Fifth Element" were fake!!
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tanstaafl2
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#5 Post by tanstaafl2 » Fri Aug 08, 2008 10:15 am

Looks like a fun option for the wealthy. Now the VTOL aircraft would be a great option but based on the link they are much farther from functional reality, less carlike at present it appears and are probably much harder to fly than standard fixed wing aircraft.

But it would be good to be able to convert to aircraft mode, fly straight up out of traffic and land in your driveway or the parking lot of your destination!
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mntetn
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#6 Post by mntetn » Mon Aug 11, 2008 6:28 am

This could take carjacking to a whole new "level"

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