What a difference a week makes!

Behold! The first flying cars!
Not these, they are only actors.

In my previous blog of Sunday 20th October, I wrote that I had been daydreaming about flying cars, but that no-one had succeeded in developing one to date, and that I was certain that there would not be a flying car in my lifetime. Well, today, one week later, I am eating my words.

The headline read: "After 80 years on the drawing board, finally success!" That is enough to make me go into culture shock. It seems that the Boston based firm of Terrafugia has spent the past six years engaging all of the finest minds and approximately $10 million to bring to reality the first real flying car. They have completed preliminary testing of a two-seater, with four wheels that will attain a top speed of 70 mph, and will fly at 1,500 feet. Wow! That takes my breath away.

It has received provisional approval from the FAA, and barring any unforseen obstacles could be ready for sale in 2015, although the first generation will likely have a hefty price tag. If we have to ask we can't afford it.

This model will need an airport, so it will be driven like any normal car, only with folded wings, and at the airport the wings are opened and up you go. It is called the Transition and gets 35 miles to the gallon on the highway, and 20 in the air.

Already, a new model is in the works, called the TF-X, a four-seater electric power drive that will be a vertical take off and land system. No airport necessary! It will also employ an Autofly system that will fly itself and have inbuilt crash avoidence guidence.

I now believe that all things are possible in my life time. I should have learned my lesson with the release of Nelson Mandela and the end of Apartheid.

Copyright (c) 2013  Eugene Carmichael