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Where The Hell Are The Flying Cars? It's The 21st Century!

United Airlines seems to be making a heavy investment in electric air taxis as rapid commuting units helping urban customers get to the airport.
United: Small electric air taxis will zip people to airports

United Airlines said Wednesday it will buy up to 200 small electric air taxis to help customers in urban areas get to the airport.

The airline said it will help electric-aircraft startup Archer develop an aircraft capable of helicopter-style, vertical takeoffs and landings. Archer hopes to deliver its first aircraft in 2024, if it wins certification from the Federal Aviation Administration.

United said once the aircraft are flying, it and partner Mesa Airlines will acquire up to 200 that would be operated by another company. ...

Archer’s aircraft are designed to fly under battery power for up to 60 miles (97 kilometers) at speeds of up to 150 mph (240 kph).

The company plans to launch service in congested areas close to airports. United estimated the air taxis could shuttle people from Hollywood to Los Angeles International Airport at about half the carbon emissions per passenger. ...
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FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/business-chicago-83ce6f0925e77026c8df68622acb0735
 
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Cars of the Future, 1948 style!

None of them take to the air in this delightful bit of colour footage but the message, spelled out at the end, is that wartime aeroplane technology was now being applied to the automobile.

It was the bit about "removable body panels" which made me put my 1948 chequebook away. :oops:
 
If i recall correctly flying cars were first seen in the 1929 movie Metropolis. Flying cars WERE a reality in the 1960's America and there are many companies that still build them.

The trouble with owning a flying car is bureaucracy. You will need a full car licence, complete with medical. A pilots licence complete with all metrologicals, medicals etc etc.

The United article is just a gimmick to show their up with technology.
Why would United Airlines, one of the US big 4 airlines be interested in becoming a "TAXI-COMPANY" ?
 
Jock Abroad said:
... Why would United Airlines, one of the US big 4 airlines be interested in becoming a "TAXI-COMPANY" ?
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They won't be providing the taxi service. Their stated intention is to have the service run by a subsidiary or partner enterprise. The partnering connection for taxi / shuttle service (if it's established) will provide business leverage by making it more convenient to use United when traveling to / from heavily congested urban centers.
 
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EnolaGaia said:
They won't be providing the taxi service. Their stated intention is to have the service run by a subsidiary or partner enterprise. The partnering connection for taxi / shuttle service (if it's established) will provide business leverage by making it more convenient to use United when traveling to / from heavily congested urban centers.
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Really????? and you believe the corporate Bullshit??? It looks like you just quoted the article.

Here is a link to their current "Taxi/shuttle" service as is today.

https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly/company/united-express-partners.html
 
Jock Abroad said:
Really????? and you believe the corporate Bullshit??? It looks like you just quoted the article. ...
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That's the extent of the plan United has revealed to date, so it's all anyone has to go on.

The current commuter / taxi partnerships are pretty much the same as for the other major carriers. United is obviously trying to devise a newer business model leveraging hopefully imminent technology to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

In any case, their prospects are wholly dependent on the development and certification of the particular air taxi vehicles in which they've claimed they're investing. We'll just have to wait and see how that plays out ...
 
Aether Blue said:
Would you trust YOUR neighbors to land one of these things next to YOUR home after they've been chewed out by the boss, or stopped by the local pub, or maybe both?

Would you trust YOUR neighbors to maintain their flying cars according to the operator's manual?

Would you trust YOUR neighbors not to run out of fuel/energy at an awkward moment over your home?

If so, then you are more fortunate than I.
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All of those concerns are the bottom line, yes IMO.
 
I suppose these thing will have to be idiot proof,
although nature will just invent a better idiot.
 
The flying car is only five years away!
Jetpacks are only five years away!
An instant cure for cancer, only five years away!
Contact with aliens, five years away!
Jurassic Park, five years away!
Robots that wipe your arse for you, five years!
 
I don't want flying cars. I want competent public servants. Utility companies that maintain their infrastructure so minor snowstorms don't turn into catastrophes. Senators who ride out the crisis with their constituents and think of useful things to do instead of taking their private jets to Cancun. Cops who aren't such cowards that they shoot the people they're sworn to protect.

We're waiting on the plumber and we are very angry.
 
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Oooh now they look like fun.
(I still wouldn't term them as 'flying cars' though)
 
The Pope is getting a new EV that does 0-60 in 2.9 seconds.

Gallery: Fisker Ocean Papal Transport​

Fisker Ocean Papal Transport Rendering

Unfortunately, there’s a new EV that does 0-62 in 2.8 seconds. So now he’s probably got Buyer’s Remorse to add to his Catholic Guilt.
 
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Trevp666 said:
Oooh now they look like fun.
(I still wouldn't term them as 'flying cars' though)
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They're oversized drones to be sure but Deckard was using a flying car in Blade Runner with fold up wheels so I'm leaning towards them being 2021 flying cars what with the added tech. I like to think so anyway.
 
I would not think they are likely to get snowed under with customers.
 
When you have a ring road system like Coventry, believe me, you need a flying car. It’s like a nightmare piece of level design from GTA in concrete rather than joined-up town planning.
 
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Flying cars really are impractical. Not because the technology couldn't be made to exist, but that in practice it would be far too inefficient and dangerous, for unconquerable reasons like gravity. There might be some limited local purposes which they would be suitable, but would you really want hundreds of thousands of flying cars over New York or London?

Like airships and monorails - any type of monorail - they are a concept that only make sense if you ignore the disadvantages - which are greater than the technologies they would attempt to replace. Although both these concepts are useful in very specific applications.

I suspect electric scooters may end up going the same way. (As Segways did only a couple of decades ago)
 
I was thinking more about the proposed 'flying carport' in Coventry, if they are ever invented, surely the benefit of a personal flying car would be that you could fly it to commute to work, go travelling around the country etc, and it being also a car you can park it in your driveway, if you are going to have to use a 'flying carport' then you may aswell use a light aircraft, so what would be the point of a dedicated 'carport'?
 
Another one takes to the air

Flying car completes test flight between airports​

By Zoe Kleinman
Technology reporter

Published5 hours ago
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media captionWATCH Convertible 'flying car' takes to the sky
A prototype flying car has completed a 35-minute flight between international airports in Nitra and Bratislava, Slovakia.
The hybrid car-aircraft, AirCar, is equipped with a BMW engine and runs on regular petrol-pump fuel.
Its creator, Prof Stefan Klein, said it could fly about 1,000km (600 miles), at a height of 8,200ft (2,500m), and had clocked up 40 hours in the air so far.
It takes two minutes and 15 seconds to transform from car into aircraft.
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-57651843
 
Souleater said:
I was thinking more about the proposed 'flying carport' in Coventry, if they are ever invented, surely the benefit of a personal flying car would be that you could fly it to commute to work, go travelling around the country etc, and it being also a car you can park it in your driveway, if you are going to have to use a 'flying carport' then you may aswell use a light aircraft, so what would be the point of a dedicated 'carport'?
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So you have somewhere to land.
 
Souleater said:
I was thinking more about the proposed 'flying carport' in Coventry, if they are ever invented, surely the benefit of a personal flying car would be that you could fly it to commute to work, go travelling around the country etc, and it being also a car you can park it in your driveway, if you are going to have to use a 'flying carport' then you may aswell use a light aircraft, so what would be the point of a dedicated 'carport'?
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I read that as 'flying carpet' and thought it must refer to that brilliant video of an Aladdin lookalike on a motorised skateboard-powered one! :chuckle:
 
Bigphoot2 said:
Another one takes to the air

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-57651843
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Yeah I saw that earlier.
Whilst the body of it is very car-shaped my immediate thought was 'yet another roadable plane'. It needed a runway and an airport to take-off from, and I expect that it also required all the certification and safety requirements of both a car and an aeroplane, and as such a full pilots licence to fly it.
This is my constant issue with most reports of 'flying cars' - none of them really fulfil the mental image of what the term 'flying car' suggests.
I always picture the type of 'flying car' as portrayed in films like 'Bladerunner' and 'Back To The Future'.
A regular(ish) looking car shaped vehicle which drives around fairly normally, and when required will just lift-off vertically from the street and fly autonomously to its destination
 
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