AirCar, a dual-mode car-aircraft vehicle moved closer to production this week, fulfilling a key development milestone in a 35-minute flight from the internat...
We have cars for the land. We have boats in the water which are very much like cars for waterways. Then there are duck boats which are a hybrid that have never been anything more than a gimmick.
Flying is the same way. A small helicopter can be thought of like a car or boat, but for the air. They all fulfill similar things, just through water, land, or air.
To make the duck boat of the sky (the flying car), we’ll end up with the same issues as the duck boat. It won’t be particularly good at anything. It will be a bad car and a bad flying machine, which will leave it as a gimmick that makes even less sense than the duck boat. A good car/boat hybrid could eliminate the need for bridges in many cases. The dream of the flying car is mostly to avoid traffic, which could be improved with better infrastructure. If everyone was flying the way they think, it would be chaos. Flying cars are only cool when you’re the only one with the flying car.
You’re using that point to call them different, I’d use that same point to call them all alike. Passenger vehicles are all fairly consistent in concept, and this is why no scifi “flying car” will be markedly different than giving every dope with a driver’s license their own helicopter.
maybe they are talking about the helicopters you can drive around in too. they don’t have big rotors on top, just basically a little fan in the front to cool the radiator when not in flight mode.
How is a helicopter remotely like a car? I agree though, that flying cars are a bad idea.
Definitions probably need to be made more clear.
We have cars for the land. We have boats in the water which are very much like cars for waterways. Then there are duck boats which are a hybrid that have never been anything more than a gimmick.
Flying is the same way. A small helicopter can be thought of like a car or boat, but for the air. They all fulfill similar things, just through water, land, or air.
To make the duck boat of the sky (the flying car), we’ll end up with the same issues as the duck boat. It won’t be particularly good at anything. It will be a bad car and a bad flying machine, which will leave it as a gimmick that makes even less sense than the duck boat. A good car/boat hybrid could eliminate the need for bridges in many cases. The dream of the flying car is mostly to avoid traffic, which could be improved with better infrastructure. If everyone was flying the way they think, it would be chaos. Flying cars are only cool when you’re the only one with the flying car.
Putting aside the different principles behind how they propel themselves through space, the basic concept of a helicopter and a car are quite similar.
All of that applies equally to aeroplanes and boats. I don’t see how a car is any more like a helicopter than e.g. a small aeroplane.
The need for a runway stands out.
I would like to see a flying car try to take off without a runway.
You’re using that point to call them different, I’d use that same point to call them all alike. Passenger vehicles are all fairly consistent in concept, and this is why no scifi “flying car” will be markedly different than giving every dope with a driver’s license their own helicopter.
maybe they are talking about the helicopters you can drive around in too. they don’t have big rotors on top, just basically a little fan in the front to cool the radiator when not in flight mode.
oh wait I’m thinking of a car