The Day of the Flying Car: Never to Be.

If you haven't seen or heard of this, you're living under a rock and you're about to get squished by a giant foot. This is the realization of all those dreams and wishes in the 50's & 60's. At long last a flying car exists.

Well actually, it isn't so much a flying car as a plane that can compact and drive on roads. Yeah, it will be awesome to drive the plane from your house to the airport, fold down the wings and fly away. That will be great for those who have a cool $195,000 stuffed under their mattress. For those of us who don't grow money on trees, we are stuck in our measly, non-flying, antique automobiles.

But will this day ever truly come? Will the day arrive at which point roads are obsolete and everyone flies everywhere? Sadly, I must disappoint my inner geek and face the inevitable logistical facts at hand. It will never be a reality.

I have to imagine that when air travel was first introduced to the public, more than a few people thought it would be fun to combine a car and plane. I almost think that they were so popularized at the same time that the fact that either one existed was a miracle of science. People were as equally amazed at a motorized carriage as they were a flying contraption. Both revolutionized the way we travel and the way people thought of distance.

Something began to happen when these techs took off. Infrastructure to support both had to built and expanded. While automobiles had very little to change, a network of roads have existed for centuries, Airplanes required mini hubs to be built. Thus the airport was born. Roads have changed to meet the volume of traffic that has steadily increased with each passing year. Vast arteries of highways and freeways criss-cross our landscape, enabling car owners and drivers to move quickly from one place to another.

Firstly, let's explore what would happen if the flying car were a reality. Everybody has one, and for fun, we'll say they take off vertically like the delorean in Back to the Future II. First problem collisions. Some sort of network of automated maneuvering would have to be in place to navigate a city. A fender bender 300 feet in the air could create a calamity. But what if they could be neutrally buoyant, meaning that at complete stop, it would be floating? That sounds good.

Ok then what would happen to roads if everybody took to the sky? I'm thinking a sort of Route 66 effect could take over across the countryside. Small pit stops that used to provide support for that long drive across the desert (considering our new buoyant cars are much more fuel efficient) would suddenly be devoid of any purpose. Connecting roads that stretch between cities would almost certainly become obsolete. Inner city roadways would still be functional to a degree for those quick round the corner trips, but honestly if I could hover 10 feet across the street, I wouldn't bother driving.

I think the biggest problem that we would have is the sheer amount of clutter we would create in the skies. Can you imagine a traffic jam? Would the government be forced to create skyways? But if skyways were implemented, then what would be the point of the flying car? Moving a freeway upward wouldn't solve any problems other than easing expansion. Suddenly adding those extra two lanes wouldn't take 2 years of construction.

So what is the point of all this? I have no idea. I just saw a car fly the other day and it made me think, what if? But then I started thinking it would create so many logistical issues, that thinking about it hurts my brain.

I have no doubt that someday personal air travel will be more popular, and hopefully less expensive. But I don't think the automobile, a vehicle that drives on the ground, will ever go away or be replaced by a flying car. Just won't happen, at least not in my lifetime.

If you're interested in the drivable plane pictured at the top, go here.

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