It's a Bird, It's a Plane... It's a Flying Car

Aeronautics for the general consumer is something that has interested people ever since the first UFO sighting graced the skies. What if we too could travel the skies? Well, yeah, we can travel the skies, but not without waiting in line for an hour, being searched, questioned, then wait another hour, board the plane, wait another 30 minutes, then sit next to some obnoxious person we don't even know who talks our ear off and...

Well, you get the point...

The idea of personal flying machines is certainly nothing new. Such vehicles go all the way back to the 1930's, like the W-5 Arrowbile, designed in 1936, (a.k.a. "hybrid flying auto"). Powered by a gas propeller towards the rear of the vehicle, the W-5 could get up to 70 mph on the roads and 120 mph in the air. Vehicles such as these have all been great ideas, but nothing has ever really came from them... so time has gone on... and on... until...

Today, we have a whole new batch of flying automobiles that promise the freedom of the skies, quicker transportation, and greater convenience. But besides just making our neighbors green with envy, can they also be green in efficiency?

One such possibility is the Terrafugia Transition. The Transition has been built as a general consumer road vehicle/jet plane, and will be capable of flying for 500 miles on a single tank of fuel. Unfortunately the Transition will run off of premium unleaded and therefore still emit C02. This is something the Transition has been criticized for, but it certainly won't be a common vehicle on the road at $148,000 (which is actually quite cheap), and the necessity to have a current private pilots license to drive/fly it.

This is a cool idea, but fails on the green front, let's see what else we have on the horizon.

The Haynes Aero Skyblazer is an interesting production idea, with a bit of a green twist. The Skyblazer will be powered predominantly by a single turbofan engine for flight and a clean hybrid electric motor for ground. The wings actually fold-up and store inside the vehicle giving it the resemblance of an actual car and better aerodynamics in comparison to the Transition. These are two extra green points for the Skyblazer, but you still need to be a licensed private pilot. This certainly isn't going to work for most of us.

The LaBiche Aerospace FSC-1 is the answer to we non-pilots. One of the unique features of this prototype was the possibility of utilizing a "hands free" navigation system that would enable the vehicle to fly itself without any training by its passengers. Thankfully it also comes with a parachute system in case you are a little weary of putting your life in the hands of a computer. The plans do not call for a hybrid electric motor, but perhaps one could be incorporated.

It looks like we are better off grounded for the time being until technology catches up a bit more with our current needs. Until then, we can still "fly" in that Tesla Roadster!

This post was inspired by Mean Green Machines.