Updated 20-Sep-2023
This is about the commercial viability, supporting documents available, NASA support and competitions, projected use and demand, and green focus of the flying car.
NASA predicts that two-car families will have one road car and one flying car in their garages in the next 30 or so years. -Mail and Guardian
Turns out, there are lots of flying car projects currently in progress. This kind of competition is great as it spurs innovation forward as well as creating greater visibility.
Modern Flying Cars and Current Flying Car Projects
- 2007 article in the Economist on "The Plane that thinks its a Boat"
- Most recently (December 23, 2009), the US Pentagon DARPA has announced plans to issue a broad request for proposals for a flying car
- Seven Modern Flying Car Designs shows what kinds of efforts and approaches are being currently or recently taken
- How Flying Cars Will Work from the howstuffworks website, including a history of flying cars and modern approaches
- Aerotech Congress 2009 focused on flying cars
Flying Boats
It turns out that historically the flying boat was the means of flight when we were into island hopping and the early development of flight. Makes sense as these are much safer than mere airplanes.
Brief Discussion of Commercial Viability of Flying Cars and Boats
Some resources mentioned * NASA Green flight challenge (2009) * NASA Tech library papers * NASA Personal Air Vehicles dubbed the second century of flight