Do you know what every sci-fi writer loves to predict? Flying cars! Well, we did not get them in the ’80s, we missed them in ’90s, and I did not see them in the 2000s either. So… Should we call the whole thing off?
There is something innately human about wanting to fly. Perhaps that is the thought of freedom. Or the appeal of the impossible. Maybe it is just our nature, which wants to overcome every obstacle. Because of all that flying cars make for a great dream. Who would not want a personal vehicle that roams through the air? Which begs the question…
Where are all the flying cars that we have been promised by now? We have been hearing about them for decades (if not centuries). There are now privately funded space programs. It seems unreasonable to think that flying cars are a more difficult task to accomplish. One would imagine that the spirit of capitalism can come up with something marketable. So why has it not?
Flying cars have been my personal dream for a long while. I even made a bet 10 years ago that we will see them available to the public by 2030. In hindsight, it may have not been the smartest thing to do. Or is it? Take a seat and come with me to find out whether I am anywhere close to winning that bet!
But there are flying cars already, right?
I can already hear someone saying “There are plenty of flying cars out there!” Then the conversation would usually go towards certain prototypes, which have been developed over the years. That is all fine, of course, but we have a problem. All these “flying cars” are not yet publicly available.
Technically, flying cars exist. They have been around for more than a decade actually. The earliest known such car is the Curtiss Autoplane of 1917. Oh, there is just one minor detail – it did not really fly. It could just take off from the ground to then shamefully come back down. So I would rather consider it a “hopping” car.
Twenty years later came the Arrowbile. Its design was pretty close to that of the Autoplane, with the difference that you could actually detach the wings. You know, so you could store them and not hang around with a footprint width of 40 feet.
Both of these vehicles had the obvious flaw of being unmarketable. People wanted flying cars, not planes you can drive on the road. Sadly, that insight never made it to most other inventors who wanted to try out their luck with flying automobiles. Let’s take a look at what else they came up with over the decades!
The flying cars of old
The worst thing about inventing new solutions is that you can get stuck in the same thinking box. Sometimes that happens because there is no need to reinvent the wheel. You can just use what has already been proven to work. The problem comes when nothing works, and you still fail to innovate.
- Switching things up – the Fulton Airphibian
In 1946, Robert Fulton came up with a “revolutionary” idea. Instead of creating a flying car, he came up with a roadable aircraft. He carried on with the tradition of ridiculous names and called it the Fulton Airphibian.
I have to give Fulton some credit though – his design was actually operational. The vehicle could be flown at 120 mph and driven at 50 mph. Its 150 hp engine was more than enough for that. Sadly, the design was impractical, as the plane could not simply transition between air and road. You had to decide beforehand whether you want to just fly it or just drive it. Still, the project was approved, but Fulton could not find funding, so he had to close it down.
- When you lack imagination – the ConvAirCar
Around the same time, another company came up with the ConvAirCar. The whole thing seems like it was designed by a child. If you want to picture it, imagine a small plane attached to a small car.
The interesting part here is that the company was very serious about its design. They have figured out the marketing and thought it would definitely be a success. However, things did not go as planned. There were many safety concerns and the entire project was called off after a crash during a test flight.
- Improving what already works – the Aerocar
A couple of years later, came the Aerocar. Its design was inspired by the Airphibian, but unlike the latter, you could actually transition between driving and flying on the spot. It received approval by the Federal Aviation Administration, and Ford even considered marketing the whole thing. Sadly, it was later shut down due to external economic factors.
Although none of these crafts made it to the mass public, you should not lose hope. They proved two things. Firstly, flying cars are at least a possibility. Secondly, you cannot expect to create the same design ten times over hoping it will work at some point. So come and check out how our modern-day inventors are trying to create innovation!
Flying cars today – where are they?
You have probably not heard many things about newly developed flying cars. That is because a lot of these projects are kept under wraps. The businesses of today know that too much publicity can be a double-edged sword. So we have to solve the puzzle by the few bits and pieces we are handed.
For starters, we should likely ditch all the preconceived notions we have about what a flying car should be. The reason for this is simple – a “car plane” does not work for the mass market.
That being said, several companies are openly working in the flying car segment. For example, Uber Elevate is a project that Uber and NASA are developing together. We will supposedly see these vehicles hit the mainstream in 2020. While this definitely sounds promising, there is a slight catch. And it may be a deal-breaker!
When we start using the terms lightly
Everybody can picture a car. In general, it would consist of four wheels, headlights, windows, a framework, among other components. You know what to imagine when you hear the word “car”. But what about “flying car”?
The image in my head is of a vehicle that looks like a regular car, yet can somehow morph into a flying machine. Do you know what I do NOT picture when I hear that description? A drone, or a helicopter, or a mix between the two. I guess that is only me though…
Apparently, Uber considers its multi-blade mini helicopter worthy of the title “flying car”. Well, sorry, but to me, this has nothing to do with a car.
Uber is by no means the only company to blame. Italdesign and Airbus have joined forces on something similar – the Pop.Up Project. Calling it a car would again be a stretch though. I can even give them a hand in describing the weird thing – let’s just call it a passenger drone.
Sadly, most of the recent flying car concepts are nothing but drones. If you have been hoping for a flying Mustang, you would be severely disappointed. But perhaps we have been looking at this all wrong?
Should the concept of cars just evolve?
To be completely honest, I cannot find many design similarities between the Ford Model T and Mustang Shelby GT500. Yet we call both of these things “cars”. Considering the word comes from “carriage” the Model T is much closer to that idea. Should we then stop calling modern vehicles cars?
In a way, I believe the same line of reasoning can be applied in the current situation. I would even argue that some of the passenger drones resemble carriages even more than a modern car. Perhaps we have come full circle.
What I am getting at is this: playing the semantics game helps no one. Why should a flying car look anything like a regular one? Additional laws of physics have to be accounted for up in the air. Naturally, that would require a lot of design changes. However, the main purpose of both designs remains the same – get just a few people from point A to point B. Although we still have the issue of driving…
A pilot, a driver, or nothing at all
We finally get to my main concern – flying cars are a nice idea, but driving is already hard enough in two dimensions. Somehow I do not see the majority of people having a pilot’s license, even for something as small as a passenger drone. But we would likely not need one.
So far it seems all flying cars will have to be on autopilot. This is why so many companies are working on perfecting their autonomous vehicle solutions. First, we have to get that done, and maybe then we will see “flying cars” everywhere.
I still cannot say if we will make this a complete transition though. I imagine there will be a lot of air taxi services, but ground vehicles will remain nevertheless. We just love driving (even if many people are bad at it). Giving it up completely, even in the face of autonomous vehicles, seems almost impossible to me.
Will flying cars really be a part of our future?
I do not know how to feel about my bet now. On the one hand, passenger drones are coming for sure. Even if they are not operable in the next two years, there is plenty of time to perfect them by 2030.
On the other hand, I have to force myself to call them “cars”. I know I have made the case that this is just a word, but still. Would it be right to win the bet on such a technicality? As I said, I imagine something different when I say “flying car”.
I will have to think more about this. While I am at it, you can tell me what you think. Should passenger drones be considered cars? Do you think they will be a part of our future anyway? Or should we place our attention someplace else?
