The Flying Farce

I read a report today that we can expect flying cars to take off within the next few years. The report indicates that this could be the mode of travel for many in the future, but to be honest, I doubt it.

The Future?

A vehicle of this type would need not only certification from the body governing aircraft, but also from those who regulate vehicles on the road, but manufacturers seem to think they can satisfy both requirements. At the moment there are such vehicles but they are still restricted to taking off from airports and not from the road.

Companies are currently developing flying cars that will take off vertically, presumably from just about anywhere, but that is a few years down the line. It will be strange to see cars zipping along the highway with a set of wings folded down each side, but even stranger to see these wings unfold and then for it to take off on the road ahead. Even scarier would be a situation where you are driving down a road and see one land in front of you!

Inside A Flying Car

What gets me about this whole scenario is the inevitable chaos we can expect if this sort of thing becomes the norm in the future. Can you seriously imagine cars taking off and landing on roads and zipping across the sky like a flock of out of control birds? I sure as hell can’t. We have enough chaos on the roads as it is what with careless drivers, drunken drivers, speeding drivers and those on drugs. Every day of the week there are hundreds of thousands of crashes across the world and now they want to give these people the opportunity to fly! The mind boggles!

Look to the sky anywhere in the future, and especially in or near big cities, and we would probably have the significant possibility of mid-air collisions and could find these things dropping out of the sky like pigeon excrement! Its one thing to say we would have traffic lanes and avoidance systems built in, but they are not infallible with an idiot behind the wheel. A crash on the road gives you at least a reasonable possibility of surviving, but from hundreds of feet in the air, no chance! And what about those underneath who are going merrily on their way only to have some idiot drop on top of them. For me, I have to say that we have more than enough problems on the roads without adding the chaos to the skies above us.

City Traffic Of The Future?

I too have seen the sci-fi movies where flying vehicles move around a city in orderly fashion in specific lanes, but does anyone really think such a thing will work in practice with the crazy individuals we see behind the wheel of a car these days? I for one don’t hold out much hope, plus the fact that those vehicles usually operate on an anti-gravity system which is a lot different than relying on a propeller.

It may be possible that a few of the rich and super rich will avail themselves of this new phenomena but hopefully it will never get into the hands of ordinary people. Looking at the price quoted by one company, Terrafugia, their Transition model will be available for the princely price of a mere $280,000 (£173,000) which is only a little less than what you would pay for a Cessna Skyhawk fixed-wing plane, so the chances are slim at best. The company has already received around 100 orders for the new craft, so when they begin to roll off the production line, it might be a good idea to keep one eye on the sky just in case some pilot/driver has had one too many, if you know what I mean.

Roy