The problem “flying car” was incorrectly described as an aeronautical engineering problem — as if inventing a compact, two- to four-seater aircraft that needed only a short runway — and ideally could use highways — was the hard part. Well, ultralights and roadable aircraft have been invented.
The problem is one of turning the invention into a transportation system … and that’s a different problem, involving safety, automation, and policy too. It turns out that bad pilots can do a lot more damage than bad drivers, for instance ….
We still don’t have economical flying cars. :(
(Doing something cheaply and a million times is a lot harder than doing it expensively and once.)
The problem “flying car” was incorrectly described as an aeronautical engineering problem — as if inventing a compact, two- to four-seater aircraft that needed only a short runway — and ideally could use highways — was the hard part. Well, ultralights and roadable aircraft have been invented.
The problem is one of turning the invention into a transportation system … and that’s a different problem, involving safety, automation, and policy too. It turns out that bad pilots can do a lot more damage than bad drivers, for instance ….