Since the invention of the automobile, humanity's thoughts immediately jumped to, "Now, how do we make this sucker fly?" Our dreams of personal aeronautic apparatuses have been reflected in our fiction, films, and cartoons from 'The Jetsons' and 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang', to the 'Back to the Future' trilogy, 'Blade Runner', and even 'Harry Potter', though the fantasy has yet to become fact... until recently. Massachusetts based Terrafugia, Inc has developed and successfully flown their Transition, a two-seater roadable plane with collapsible wings. Here is their video:
http://www.terrafugia.com/video_D2.html
Though plans are to have a commercial version out by next year, don't go racing to your car dealership with wallet in hand because the base price of the Transition is $279,000. (Interestingly, on the note of who the Transition is intended to be sold to and/or who it can be bought by, the specifications of the vehicle list a "cargo area [that] holds golf clubs".)
Terrafugia claims that it meets all of the safety specs for both cars and planes and after taking a test and completing a mere 20 hours of flight time, anyone can drive/fly the Transition. The site doesn't list any concerns or resolutions dealing with the issues of driving/piloting without a license, taking off and landing on interstates (the Transition needs 1700 feet of space for takeoff), piloting while intoxicated, or worse, crashing into public areas.
According to the Wikipedia site on flying cars, research and development in this area has been conducted since the 1930's. Henry Ford looked into making a personal one-seater which he dubbed the "sky flivver". He believed that by our day, everyone would be flying one. These beliefs ended after the plane crash during its test flight, killing the pilot, and ending its funding. Many other companies have also tried but it is only recently that air traffic laws have allowed for such a vehicle to fly.
While this technology certainly is astounding, one begs the question about its practicality. Will our lives be dramatically changed by rich people flying to their golf games, tipsy on a few martinis as they look and laugh at all us regular joes in our regular cars being pulled over by cops who can't fly? The future may be here, but do we really need it?
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