New cars will be able to fly, float

IMAGINE a flying car. Does it look like a fancy sports car with foldable wings? Or a jet ski-like craft that seems to float above water? These aren’t make-believe. That sports car-plane combo is called the AeroMobil Flying Car. The latest model, which can be ready to fly in less than three minutes, was previewed recently with a promised arrival date of 2020. The vehicle zooming above water is the Kitty Hawk Flyer, an all-electric creation expected by the end of the year.

These are two of more than a dozen present-day plans. What’s driving this sky-high frenzy?

“Technology has changed,” says Dorothy Cochrane, a general-aviation curator at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington. “The ultimate design of a flying car is going to be so much different than what people were trying to do for years.”

After all, soaring automobiles are almost a century-old fantasy. What’s different, says Cochrane, is today’s creations use lighter materials metal, don’t rely on heavy engines and are more hi-tech.

Even so, there are roadblocks. The Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates air traffic, would need to figure out what to do with them. They’re also expensive. The AeroMobil Flying Car will sell for more than $1 million, making it more of a status symbol than a practical way to travel.

But that’s not to say flying cars will always be limited to people with a lot of money. Just think, less personal gadget and more flying taxi.

Uber wants to create an on-demand network of electric vehicles that can take off and land vertically that could be used for regular daily trips, such as going to work. Early versions would use pilots before advances in technology allow them to operate themselves. Tests would start in 2020. That is, if the machines exist. By presenting this goal, Uber hopes to motivate inventors to, well, invent them.

And although past dreamers needed to persuade supporters to help pay for their projects, that’s not necessarily so today. Creators of the Kitty Hawk Flyer, for instance, have got support from Google co-founder billionaire Larry Page, who has given money to flying-car projects.

“It was easy just 10 years ago to say: ‘Never going to happen’,” Cochrane says. “Now I’m not going to say that any more.” – The Washington Post