Flying Cars, A Reality?

An MSNBC.com report claims, through all the past years of hearing about flying contraptions, whether it be Santa Claus's sleigh or movies using such "flying vehicles", flying cars might actually become a reality in the next five years.  According to John Brown, editor of RoadableTimes.com, a web database of flying cars, this reality could be in the form of an actual everyday, practical car.

Apparently, there are close to 1,500 flying car designs that have been created over the years, and 152 of them have actually flown.  These were not created by your everyday, run of the mill people, these were thoughts and models put together and tinkered with by every major aerospace and auto manufacturer from Boeing to BMW.  Although, there are still kinks to work out, they just haven't come up with anything that would suit the public, cosmetic-wise. However, they think they are getting close.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has come up with a prototype that has taken to the air 27 times as of the spring of 2009.  The engineers are calling their flying car a roadable aircraft; an aircraft that can be driven to and from the airport, and also parked in a garage. This two-seater switches between a car and a plane in 30 seconds by its folding wings.  It uses unleaded gasoline and can drive at highway speeds.  It also can fly 450 miles at 115 miles per hour on a single tank of fuel.  The team from the Institute is now working on a second-stage prototype that could be out in 2011.

Another prototype preparing for completion is the X-Hawk.  It is referred to as a VTOL vehicle, which stands for "vertical take-off and landing".  This van-sized vehicle can travel up to 155 miles per hour, and was created at the Urban Aeronautics in Yavne, Israel.  It is intended to be used combat and rescue missions for soldiers.

Four more designs are in the progress of being manufactured; a spaceship type model that was designed by a California man, a parachute-glider vehicle that is more like a dune-buggy with a massive rear propeller, which was created in London, and would be primarily used for sport, a motorcycle-gyrocopter hybrid, that would be street-legal, and would be able to fly at 4,000 feet, and finally, an air-car, primarily used for long distance commutes.  It looks very similar to a small aircraft, but it would also be street-legal, measuring 7 ft. wide with the main wing folded in at the rear of the vehicle.  Most of the manufacturers of these prototypes are hoping to have these on the streets, and obviously in the air by 2010 or 2011.  

This article displays a picture for each prototype and gives a description of each.  It is well worth looking at.  

Ever since the Jetsons cartoon, millions of us have dreamed of the day we could see flying cars in real life, and never thought it could actually happen.  That day might just be closer than we think.