Flying Cars

[wulf]

Apparently flying cars are being seriously developed. I thought the line, "We have this wonderful natural resource above us," was rather ironic considering the fact it has eight engines and, even if it can run on ethanol, I suspect it will use a lot of fuel and pump out a lot of pollution!

Wulf

[Stonehead]

Apparently flying cars are being seriously developed. I thought the line, "We have this wonderful natural resource above us," was rather ironic considering the fact it has eight engines and, even if it can run on ethanol, I suspect it will use a lot of fuel and pump out a lot of pollution!

Wulf

I wouldn't worry too much. Variations on the same theme have been announced every couple of years since the 1950s with promises of imminent roll-out followed by mass production.

Strangely, I don't see many whizzing by, though...

[Thomzo]

Oh but can you imagine what it would be like if they were developed. People whizzing around above your garden, dive bombing the chooks and scaring the cats.

Nooooooooooooooo

Zoe

[Stonehead]

Oh but can you imagine what it would be like if they were developed. People whizzing around above your garden, dive bombing the chooks and scaring the cats.

Nooooooooooooooo

Zoe

Muck spreading would be easy though. Fork it into the air and the s*** really could hit the fan...

[Thomzo]

[Wombat]

What Stoney said!

these ideas have been circulating for a long time but are impractical when you look closely at it. Imagine the carnage if you take our current road toll and then give the buggers another dimension to play in! *shudder*.

Nev

[the.fee.fairy]

presumably, people would then have to pay horrendous amounts of tax - road and sky tax?!

What about airspace restrictions?

[ina]

I'd put a big sign on top of my roof - keep clear for wildlife use

[wulf]

I'm hesitant about saying it will never happen (says he, tapping away on a computer that probably devotes more computing power to its screensaver than was used to send men to the moon).

However, while I think the technology is probably either feasible or likely to become feasible, I could see it being incredibly dangerous. Even on 2D roads, the biggest danger is the unpredictability of other drivers so I can imagine it being much worse with people trying to overtake not just on the inside but also above and below! Furthermore, a malfunction that causes the engine to die is often survivable if you don't get hit by another car; it would be a different story 50' up in the air.

Therefore, I suspect safety legislation may save us from the menace of flying cars for a while yet.

Wulf

[ina]

Therefore, I suspect safety legislation may save us from the menace of flying cars for a while yet.

Ouff - I'm glad to hear that! You are right - it would be a nightmare... But I could imagine adventure park kind of places where you could go and hire one of them for an hour or so, and then fly about to your heart's content

Just like you get the paint gun places nowadays, where you can shoot your boss without reproof!

[Stonehead]

Just like you get the paint gun places nowadays, where you can shoot your boss without reproof!

That reminds me of a funny incident a few years back. I had to go on one of those team-building jaunts and it included a day's paintballing. I happily tracked down and "shot" every member of my team, only to be told off by the director I reported to as I was supposed to have let them get me (I was the manager). Sod that!!

In the next session, I tracked the director down and shot her in the bum. That wasn't on, either!

[mrsflibble]

on the ehtanol as a fuel thing, on paper it chucks just as much co2 out as petrol... but on a mile-for-mile test basis when it's being used to power an engine it actually produces around 52% more co2 than petrol because ethanol is a less efficiently burning fuel.
so many people in the states are jumping on the ethanol bandwagon that they're actually making things WORSE rather than better.

[Muddypause]

on the ehtanol as a fuel thing, on paper it chucks just as much co2 out as petrol...

Does that figure take into account the carbon that is absorbed by the biomass while it is growing? If so, where does the extra carbon come from?

[mrsflibble]

I have no idea. I'm just going by a few artices I've read; none of them go into the science properly. you could try writing to new scientist magazine.

[pskipper]

The extra carbon is the intensive farming, big tractors, fertilizers etc in order to get commercially viable yields, as far as I understand. Once proper biomass fermentation technology (making ethanol from the whole plant) matures ethanol will come into it's own.