Why is polycarbonate not allowed for ordinary cars? It seems like it would accomplish the same goal as automotive safety glass, namely preventing injuries from sharp shards of glass in a collision.
They had one of these parked at the Google I/O after-party this year.<p>From looking at it -- specifically, that big wing where you'd normally expect a bumper on a car -- it made me wonder what would happen to the aerodynamic profile of the car if it got the sort of usual dents and dings a car gets.<p>I know my car accumulated a few of them before I even made the first payment. Would something like that have the potential of rendering it unairworthy?
I'm surprised the Maverick wasn't mentioned yet in the comments here. It looks far more fun and durable than the other flying car designs out there: <a href="http://mavericklsa.com/" rel="nofollow">http://mavericklsa.com/</a>
Video of their test model in flight: <a href="http://www.terrafugia.com/Flight_1146.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.terrafugia.com/Flight_1146.html</a>
This will be interesting ... lots of things (prisons, nuclear power plants, the White House) are built with the assumption that the average person can't just fly something over a 18-foot high razor wire fence. Wonder how people are going to deal with the fact that many security measures are now significantly reduced in effectiveness.
If they ever ship, I expect the market to be squarely in the "playthings-for-the-wealthy" category.<p>This thing just does not solve any real problem other than gadget-lust.
This is huge news for Moller and ilk. I know Moller's been working on the 'flying car' idea for what seems like forever now (having built working prototypes in the 60s or 70s), and from what I've seen, the Moller Skycar at least SEEMS to be the closest thing I've seen to a feasible product.