MAR 14

what an amazing future if we could get around in low impact flying machines. At a talk coming up in May the Powerhouse Museum will be looking at the future of transport and cars, this idea will figure large in our discussion.

Is the problem that aviation is toooo cheap, we all fly too much and it is our transport patterns that are unsustainable? I love flying, but I realise the huuge damage it is doing to the environment, whilst half empty planes fly around because the airlines don't want to lose their "slot" at the airport. In the UK, we recently had a story of a plane flying a route empty just to keep the airlines option on the route open. What we need is a sensible rethink of aviation, looking at the logistics of managing flights to minimise environmental impact... one we have done all this, the improved technology will start to make more sense.

Long before NASA entered this field, a visionary genius by the name of Paul Moller began work on PAVs. Those interested can see his site at: http://www.moller.com

The CAFE Foundation has test data on some very impressive airplanes, including one that goes about 180 mph while getting 52.25 miles per gallon.

If designed for fuel efficiency airplanes offer a viable eco-alternative to cars.

I worked on the design of a home built hybrid airplane a few years back. The hybrid electric boost helped with take off performance and it also provided a backup motor if the gas engine conked out.

-jb

Man, I can't wait until these PAV's are ready for production! I'd love to be able to find the perfect woman and get married, all in less than two hours! This technology can be yours too!

I did warn that the video is pretty cheesy. I can't imagine the people who put it together were not going for the cheese factor.

This concept is completely incredible. But, what happens once these become more popular and available, and then the airways are jammed with PAV's? Also, these have to be kind of dangerous for inexperienced pilots. But overall, I am thoroughly impressed and excited to see if these can actually be manufactured in larger quantities.

does the magann wind turbine that produces 2000 watts per . per what , how much, do you install, how many per acer advised? thx deb

Debra-
I am not sure which wind turbine you refer to. We do not install turbines but I could recommend someone if you are interested.

Thanks

jsbarrie

Jonathan-

One cool new development in aviation is the "glass panel" cockpit. When you fly a modern airplane you can get a great visual of the terrain you are flying over plus the location of other airplanes in your area. The system will set off an alarm when an airplane gets too close. Airplanes on a collision trajectory are highlighted.

Thanks

jsbarrie

Hi I think you are behind the 8 ball, as I fly regularily in a 80hp rotax engined plane that does 44 mpg. you better work harder and think up some thing like a solar powered or even wind powered thign??

Colin

:) :) :) >:( >:( :P :P :P :- :-* :'( ;D ;) :( :o 8)

1) AIR CAR, RAN ON A COMPRESSED AIR MOTOR, W/A SOLOR RECHARGED BATTERIE TO OPERTE THE AIR COMPRESSER, WOULDN'T HAVE TO EVER RE-FUEL. AS LONG AS YOU CAN GET ABOVE THE CLOUDS YOUR OK.

Notice how they don't mention noise.

The last thing we need is to take the masses of humanity who are distracted, dangerous surface drivers and put them in machines that are above our heads.

What we realy need in this heating up world is a mayor (about 90 per cent!) overall cut on carbon emission. The idea of a 50 mpg private plane sounds very promissing, but might infact bring aviation so much closer to everyday people, that it will lead to a net ncrease of overall carbon emission. It is to be reminded that also carmanufactureres are improving the efficiency of cars, which makes it less sensible to compare future aviation efficiency to that of nowadays cars.
I'm afraid flying will need to become much more xclusive in stead of rather normal if we still want to keep our climate under controle. Only if we can find a way to fly for (almost) 100 per cent on renewables, flying can become a climate safe way of transporting ourselves. Untill then aviation will remain one of the most climate deteriorating industries of our time.

What will enable someone to build a plane that goes 150mph and gets 40mpg, when most cars can't get 40mpg on the highway going half that speed?

Great! I cannot wait to see the evening peak traffic with these between London and Basingstoke. I mean tens of thousands of cars (sorry, plains) during a few hours. Of course it would be so different, because the motorway has three lanes and the air is so wide and high... Yep, until you have to land. Nevermind, I was always curious what a stationary traffic with plains looks like. Busy Heathrow, eat your heart out!

Great! I cannot wait to see the evening peak traffic with these between London and Basingstoke. I mean tens of thousands of cars (sorry, plains) during a few hours. Of course it would be so different, because the motorway has three lanes and the air is so wide and high... Yep, until you have to land. Nevermind, I was always curious what a stationary traffic with plains looks like. Busy Heathrow, eat your heart out! If they can hardly control today's air traffic how will they... Actually, I am slightly cautious. A century ago it was predicted that by the middle of the century we were going to travel by air everywhere. Some Germans did but even they preferred tanks at the time.

So when are we going to see like a Lexus of eco friendly airplanes. Like the Lexus 450H of airplanes.

Take that OLED stuff from the other article and build this plane out of that and get yourself a solar powered plane. I'm thinking that's what the new solar powered cell phone uses. Might as well shoot for an all electric version since by the time this thing hits production we'll be out of gas or dangerously close anyway. Like others have said, I don't trust these lunatics on the ground much less in the air. Can you imagine the drunk flying incidents? What does the "glass cockpit" do when the pilot totally ignores the warnings? What happens when some redneck wants to "modify" his PAV? I saw some clitus driving down the street with no doors and no hood. Someday we can take that to the skys! I want one but damn we really need to be strict on the certifications to opperate these things and checking papers at "airports." to get them off the ground as we should be doing with cars today.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Very funny. Boy, some people are delusional. There are so many reasons why promoting mass private aircraft usage is a really dumb idea that I don't even know where to start. How about this: icing. How are these aircraft supposed to automatically deal with icing conditions? Or thunderstorms? Next: ever heard of RVSM? It stands for "reduced vertical separation minimum", and is a plan to reduce the vertical separation in the flight levels from 2000 feet to 1000 feet. So, hundred million dollar aircraft with professional flight crews need 2000 feet of vertical separation by default - and they still screw up from time to time, e.g. an incident involving a 747 that had to initiate a descent as the crew had not noticed a decay in speed in time to recover with full power. The ATC system is at capacity in many places already, but we'll just throw in thousands of new aircraft and there will be NO PROBLEM because we'll use "advanced technologies" and "highways in the sky". Uh huh. Next, the obvious question is where are you going to get a doubling or better in aircraft efficiency from? That sort of fantasy just does not happen in real life. New design aircraft are about as light as they can be, and even with modern turbodiesel engines they are NOWHERE NEAR 40 mpg. It just is not going to happen - I'm willing to bet money on it.

Then of course there is the whole issue of putting people who can barely guide a car within a highway lane and who have no idea which direction they are going, in charge of an aircraft. "We'll just automate everything" is not a sufficient answer. How do you deal with failures? Oops, engine failure... now what? Can you imagine the existing airworthiness infrastructure applied to thousands of people who haven't a clue about flying? What happens when people can't afford the multi-thousand dollar annual inspection? Are people going to abandon a trip in the middle of the country because something failed, or are they going to try to press on regardless?

etc etc etc - there is more to becoming a pilot than just learning some aerodynamics and the basics of controlling an aircraft.

If you want to increase efficiency and avoid congestion, take a bloody train. Except, of course, USians dismantled their passenger rail system ages ago. Oh well. Time to rebuild...

Eran, June 04, 2007: well said.

Seriously, there is NO need to fly at all. It's great fun, and it's fast, but it's not NEEDED. What we need is to slow down. Once we get back to a point where the level of Greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere is livable and stable, and everyone has enough to eat, then we can think about new ways to fly that don't destroy the planet and society.

At that point, I'd be thinking about gliders with solar panels and electric rotors. They already stay up pretty well without ANY power, how would they go with some for of propulsion included?

... said:

"There are so many reasons why promoting mass private aircraft usage is a really dumb idea that I don't even know where to start"

and

"Then of course there is the whole issue of putting people who can barely guide a car within a highway lane and who have no idea which direction they are going, in charge of an aircraft. "We'll just automate everything" is not a sufficient answer. How do you deal with failures? Oops, engine failure... now what? Can you imagine the existing airworthiness infrastructure applied to thousands of people who haven't a clue about flying? What happens when people can't afford the multi-thousand dollar annual inspection? Are people going to abandon a trip in the middle of the country because something failed, or are they going to try to press on regardless?"

Very true. But I suppose Natural Selection (crashes) would soon weed out those not fit to fly. What a way to improve the species! 8)

ok that is weird idea(no offense).how can that be true anyway? im prepared to bet that that WILL NOT HAPPEN.trust me ;)

The problem with the inhabitants in the developed world is that they demand un-fettered personal freedom and choice. The consumerism in the past pandered to those desires, creating wasteful use of energy. Why not a train system with a fixed schedule ? Once that becomes a reality, people will plan their movement and schedules accordingly. With train speeds reaching almost 400km per hour a fairly large area could be covered with the lowest per capita contribution to global warming. This mild increase in travel time and a little inconvenience is a small price to pay as air-travel is the single largest contributor to green-house gases and global-warming. One days contribution would probably equal 1 days contribution of a developing country.

I Believe all Industries are driven by money, so lets just sell the ticket from any airline but group flights going to same destinations, and let the airlines work out the details of cost to one another. as long as there is a profit margin they can live with why not!

they are already testing networked cars and have a plan for networked air traffic control ...think Jetsons.

using GPS and a common network you would put in your destination and the network would avoid other flying objects...pretty simple

:) ;) :D ;D >:( :( 8) :P :P :P :- :'( :-* :( ;) :) :) :) :) :) :D ;) :) :) ;) ;) ;) ;D :)

:) :) ;) ;) ;) ;D >:( >:( >:(

Mollers skycars "will" be the vehicle of choice soon, and will probably win this prize as they have worked out the technical problems of making this a reality. The engine technology alone is worth checking out. The Marine Corp is going to love this vehicle. "No Opsrey disasters". I hope to own a M400 in the future, and I'am snatching up stock in the company before it goes to high! ;D

There are a few million Tibetans who will testify that roads aren't always a great idea (and loggers can't clear rainforests without roads). So, having established that flying cab be the lesser evil - that's a great looking plane!

"What we realy need in this heating up world is a mayor"

Excellent point.

"using GPS and a common network you would put in your destination and the network would avoid other flying objects...pretty simple"

As a general aviation flight instructor I honestly hope the FAA never lets it become simple. No, flying's not hard. Landing is. Making flying as accessible as driving would congest the air instead of the roads, and airspace busts would happen left and right. Say someone works and lives in Cincinnati, or Columbus, they can't just take off in their back yard and fly to work. It would be an FAA airspace violation unless they're talking to the controlling agency of that airspace, and ATC is already shorthanded as it is.

That's exactly what we need to do, weed out the weaklings who can't fly. They are obviously operating with inferior genetics.
Now seriously, this win megabucks for designing Stuff that's more efficient is a dead end. It just serves to keep the price of oil down so that we can use it to build other stuff somewhere else (= coal plants in Nigeria, more cars, more plastic nothings, and whatever that nasty no-stick stuff is that we coat all our cooking pans with nowadays.
A narrow-minded focus on increasing efficiency is disaster.

I'm all for thinking outside of the box, but this sounds ludicrous to me. Having millions of people flying around in the air?! Insane. Theres so many problems with that that i can't see it ever being a reality, nor do i want it to be.

I would have thought the more sane and rational thought process would be to invest in clean energy (wind, wave, hydro etc), keep manufacturing better, cleaner cars, advancing from hybrid to completely gas free cars, and to top it all off, a very strong public transport service.

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Of course it will happen! but when? the usa-ers will lag as always, stick to their wardom policies and won't want to develop such alternative mobiling. It's a warocracy thing after all. The dollar being the new Peso, will only stretch so far and land mines and wardom toys ( here a war, there a war, everywhere a war war) definetely take priority over any progressive spending. Homogeneity prevails. The beat goes on. Usa-ers /imaginatative,artistic sensible endeavors / out the window. So the Euro types will run with it. Inevitably! Am I right or am I right ?

Of course it will happen! but when? the usa-ers will lag as always, stick to their wardom policies and won't want to develop such alternative mobiling. It's a warocracy thing after all. The dollar being the new Peso, will only stretch so far and land mines and wardom toys ( here a war, there a war, everywhere a war war) definetely take priority over any progressive spending. Homogeneity prevails. The beat goes on. Usa-ers /imaginatative,artistic sensible endeavors / out the window. So the Euro types will run with it. Inevitably! Am I right or am I right ?

Perhaps you missed the part about who puts on this contest.

I think that in the future this could be possible. In this world all could be possible and I have to admit that this flying car could help very much with this traffic. ;D

I just love airplanes. It would be wonderful to have your own airplane instead of a car. ;D ;D I hope I'll still be alive by then :D

I'm trying to figure out just what scares me the most... that there are so many people that are opposed to a large segment of the population flying because they assume most people are just too stupid to fly or because it's not necessary... or that there are so many people that have strong opinions that can't spell simple words like "major" or "secrete" or use the proper tense of words like 'guarantees'... especially when they seem to believe their ideas/thoughts are so relevant and/or commonplace.

My thought is that we need to concentrate on 100% electric powered aircraft (and vehicles too), recharged via Solar, Wind and thermal transfer technologies (the earth isn't the only place there is naturally occurring heat that can be used to create electricity is it?) therefore reducing our impact on our environment while allowing more transportation options. It's absolutely ridiculous to suggest that we all just travel less, or just give up on flying. Maybe it's not NEEDED, but it sure would have less impact on our environment than more & more roads, not to mention the amount of waste rubber from millions of tires wearing away from millions of miles driven over those roads every single day.

Anybody ever think about trying to design ULTRALIGHT PAVs? All electric personal aircraft build for the short & medium range commuters, able to take off & land in very short distances and rechargeable (sp?) via solar systems AND plug in charging technologies? I'm not a pilot, or an aeronautical engineer, or even a real genius... but I'm really curious what arguments can be made against it :) (I know, that's probably inviting WAY more than I want to hear, but I really am curious)

here comes the kamakazies again. or watch out for that building honey.

personal planes is such a terrible terrible
idea that i think it must be some kind of
baby boomer mid-life crisis embolism

just think of the noise pollution
consider the visual pollution
its a lot of pollution even if these are not carbon monsters

what then is the alternative?
i tend to think its some kinda
underground maglev personal pod
a bit like in aeon flux
but thats just me

"good design wants to be invisible"

whatever
get rid of this post as a feature one for ecogeek
its such an embarrassment

ITS BINARY! ;)
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1010

Here is one more flying. But not so high :):)

http://www.moller.com/skycar.htm

;D realistic future , nice cars

excellent idea

Wow man, but like what is wrong with a horse?
I bet there isn't room to roll a decent doobie on the dashboard either.
It might drive thro maccy d s more entertaining tho'!

peace love jossticks and other eco hippy nonsense to you all

x

If you are adventurous enough, you can film your woman, while she is masturbating with the vibrator.

A vibrator. This is the most common sex toy in the market. The man can use the vibrator on the woman to locate her G-Spot.

If you are adventurous enough, you can film your woman, while she is masturbating with the vibrator.

love that plane story, will it work in sicily

get your sexy toys here

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I think this is a good idea. Replace ordinary cars with small planes like these and replace big gas guzzling airliners with airships, then the roads can be ripped up and trees can be planted. try as I might I just can't get enthusiastic about train travel in the same way as flying...I just find trains boring, also a lot of trains I have been on are far from green.

Teaser graphic in upper right says 50 mpg, title says 40!
To shamelessly quote Monty Python:
Where's the other penny?

Amazing. I think this will revolutionize the flying industry. I hope i will see a aircraft like this someday. NASA really thinks of everything and I am happy to see that they are thinking about mother earth too.

Amazing. I think this will revolutionize the flying industry. I hope i will see a aircraft like this someday. NASA really thinks of everything and I am happy to see that they are thinking about mother earth too.

__________________
stock trading programs

No, there would not be as much as problems you think. Think positively. There will be highways in the sky. You dont fly from your home. For long distance flights you take the interstate or highways. Until you get to a highway the GPS and other aricraft controlled device will guide you to the shortest possible safe lane in the sky-highway and then you are on a lane that nobody can overtake. There gotta be something that automates to avoid other objects in the sky.

This is pure insanity. We can already see what millions of cars have done to our world.

We need a single world government, and we need it to outlaw personal transport of all kinds. The State is the best entity to manage collective personal transport.

http://www.theonion.com/conten...tions_hope

will cowboys of the future use their personal PLANES to round up the cattle, shepherds use the personal plane to round up their sheep and guys jump across town to their afternoon delight ??? As long as common sense and good spelling are so rare, humanity has a long way to go ...

cool site! its awesome!!!!!!!!!!

:) ;) :D ;D :-* ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D :) :) ;) ;) :D :o :-* :-* :-*

i love all the different designs of skyscrapers! ;D
i wish i could visit all them, but i cant >:(

hi mike

;D

I love the buildings ;D ;D ;D

i wish i could visit them.

The idea of more planes in the sky piloted over cities and other areas where they are supposed to allieve congestion doesn't sit well with me. As is we have too many small plane crashes. Add to that these planes could be crashing into each other much more easily because they will all be rushing to work through the air and all trying to get there at the same time and you don't just have an accident you have a disaster, especially if you consider that the debris will likely fall over highly populated areas where it will destroy buildings and kill people.
We need a more efficient, cleaner way to move more people at once. Not a way to move more people separately. Our highways are congested because too many people insist on driving their gigantuan cars with no one but themselves inside. Too many cars, not enough people in each of them for it to be economical. Also this seems like one way to use up our oil resources faster. Giving everyone the ability to own and fly a plane doesn't seem the solution to me.

Veronika, Cowboys in Australia have been using helicopters to round up cattle for decades.

40 MPG vs 50 MPG: could be a US vs Imperial gallon thing.
Either is not bad for 100mph - no rolling resistance on the road.

And as for Moller SkyCar: it's the way of the future - always has been, always will be... ;)

And it's probably time we had a rabbit fence, or maybe just a captcha of some sort?

looks great

Eran said...

Untill then aviation will remain one of the most climate deteriorating industries of our time.

I am a certificated pilot and know that that statement is completely false. First of all, aviation is expensive, but not just for the independently wealthy. If aviation were to be one of the worst industries for the environment, transportation would have to be about 1 mile per gallon. Jet fuel costs about $7 or $8 at large international airports. Flying to California from New York would then cost $21,000-$24,000. It doesn't; at least, it doesn't per person.

Typical planes for recreational use, and potentially for light aerobatics (loops, rolls, etc) get about 8gallons per hour, at 120knots. That works out to be 17 nautical miles per gallon. Better than SUVs and hummers, but still not great. Smaller airplanes burn less than 3 gallons per hour at about 80-100 miles per hour. That's 26 to 33 mpg.

Gliders are a better example. Two gallons of gas will easily bring a glider to 1500 feet. From there, on a good day, the glider can gain altitude and fly for hours. 4-8 hour flights aren't uncommon at 80miles per hour. That's 160-320mpg. Does your car get that?

It's a fantastic idea, but he's been building it for over 20 years, switched propulsion ideas twice, and has only gotten a working prototype off the ground three times, over the course of multiple years. Even he admits it still needs a lot of work before it's commercially airworthy, though lots of folk have prepaid anyway.

And to those who mocked the Osprey, the SkyCar uses a nearly identical VTOL system that Moller has had identical problems with. Given the massive inherent difficulties in both software and equipment maintenance in VTOl, not to mention the specialized training one needs, is that really the best thing to put into the hands of the average consumer?

One final point. More people die in cars than any other type of transportation that exists by a couple orders of magnitude greater than the rest combined. PAVs would have the same dangers: high speed collision, crazy drivers, mechanical failure, but with extra problems. Running out of gas would likely be fatal, weather patterns could push you hundreds of miles off course or kill you, and nearly *any* crash would be deadly, no matter how many airbags or safety systems you build into it.

So, fun as they are, maybe they should be a bit more controlled, and still require some form of pilot's license?

Idiots cant even stay in the right lane. This will just make thousands of crashes a month, through living room windows, skyscraper windows, midair crashes, people shooting bb guns at them. You can just image the impossibilities. Until the day you can drink beer and drive will be the day these things are released in the US.

We we need is an anti-gravity reactor that still does not exist (to my knowledge anyway)and all these dangers of flying will just go away. I am not a UFO fanatic but rumors have it that the crash at Roswell of the alien ship had such a device. Imagine, we can equip regular cars with the anti-gravity reactor and just float away to our destination propelled by anything including compressed air using Newtons 3rd law of motion.. ;D

This was a low speed, high performance "aircar" type aircraft built in the 1940's but never brought to market.

http://www.pilotfriend.com/photo_albums/potty/17.htm

very interesting story, and an amazing machine.

http://thefoodmonsterblog.blogspot.com
I love it, the future is here. Everyone should get one of these beauties.

Hey All-

Thanks for all the comments. Here are a few things to consider.

1. Part of the PAV Challenge is to design Global Positioning computers that know where air traffic is and to avoid that traffic. Each airplane will have a GPS transponder that reports its position to other traffic.

2. As for landing at Heathrow. The PAV airplane is designed to take off and land on really short runways. You don't have to find a big airport, or even a small airport. An open field near your home would be sufficient.

3. The PAV challenge is also working on noise. You probably won't notice any more than you notice when a car drives down the road outside your home.

4. Another thing to remember is that airplanes can be one of the most efficient forms of transportation. One plane was measured by the Experimental Aircraft Association to get 56.25 miles per gallon while traveling at 180 miles per hour. That is better than a Prius while traveling three times the speed.

The concept of a PAV only further permits the expansion of mankind to continue beyond acceptable limits of the environment without immediate consequence. More transportation means the world gets to support more people, more traffic; period.

Technology is a wonderful thing for a controlled population. It can increase the quality of life for intellectuals. That is the ideal. In reality it is foolishly gifted to the stupid and evil only to be used as a vessel which ultimately makes the world more populated with both.

I would rather travel in a 12 MPG Italian exotic through peaceful agrarian than fly futuristic aircraft through a crowded world of concrete, smog and twisted metal.

Why travel at all? You can write letters to each other. Improve your mind and grammar. Avoid increasing the population. Spread fewer social diseases, including war and psychopathic Type A personalities.

aircraft on this website can be had in kit form for around 10 grand or less, cruises at 120mph at 50mpg. capable of higher speeds of course...

that's a pretty good start i'd say.
economy of a prius, except instead of 60 you're doing 120, in a straight line. and no replacement tires after every 10k miles lol

PAV? How about PITS (Pie in the Sky)?

So, if there are going to be so many "flying cars" wouldn't there be a high chance of collisions, what with 45% of travel being in these mini-planes? Unless there are going to be flying traffic lights as well... :D

What I want to see is flying motorcycles. The perfect way to fly, the only way to die!!!
I would buy one.

I too am a pilot. There are only approximately 625,000 active pilots in the United States. This number includes student, recreational, private, commercial, airline transport, helicopter, glider, and lighter-than-air pilots. ICAO records show at total of just over one million active pilots worldwide. With the world's population currently at 6,602,224,175, that is a very small number. I think you can do the math and see how incredibly few that really is for the entire planet.

Aviation is expensive because there are so few planes in the air and pilots flying airplanes. This causes the insurance cost per vehicle to be prohibitively high. If there were as many airplanes and pilots as are our cars and drivers it might be just as cheap to fly as it is to drive. But as some of you have already pointed out, most drivers are idiots and shouldn't even be allowed to drive let alone fly.

All that being said, if personal safety were a priority in the United States we are a point in our history where accidents would be a thing of the past. But safety of modern automobiles is not a top priority. Large corporations and we ourselves (and our government) are willing to accept massive annual casualties so we can enjoy cheaper automobiles along with the freedom to drive them wherever we want. It would cost a massive amount of money but we could create idiot-proof auto drive systems by using modern computer guidance systems, GPS, and collision avoidance systems. This has already been demonstrated in Europe and the United States in test facilities.
Modern fighter aircraft cannot be flown by a human without their Computer System functioning.

Therefore, personal aircraft could be sufficiently idiot-proofed just as automobiles could be today as described above. This is all possible and completely feasible or NASA would not bother with this competition.


Modern Computer Systems, GPS, and collision avoidance systems would overcome many of your issues and fears.


And one last note to answer question one of you have posted. Automobiles can never be as efficient as aircraft because they're bound to the ground by their wheels. This friction of the wheel systems decreases efficiency. Ground effect or magnetic levitation propulsion systems could boost efficiency to astronomical levels.

JCE
http://johnceberhardt.wordpress.com

Ok wow we have several problems here I will try my best not be redundant.

Here in the US Avation fuel for prop planes is at a significantly higher octane than regular 87 gas at the gas station. It takes several gallons of gas just to start the engines up. At 3 or 4 dollars a gallon now how much do you think gas will be when this aircraft is finally built.

Simple GPS systems will keep aircraft away from each other? What happens when the GPS fails? What happens if two planes fly towards each other trying to avoid other planes? These kind of GPS systems in aircraft today cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Maglev bullet trains make so much more sense. Trains carry more people more efficiently in nearly all kinds of weather at faster speeds. If you are flying cross-country do you really want to make multiple stops for gas as some small planes have to do now? As far as bullet maglev trains work, they run off of electricity. Since electricity is dirt-cheap this is the way to go. What if there is a power failure? Well, the train drops 2-3 inches and coasts to a stop, simple huh?

How much are these planes going to cost? For what it is worth Netjets can fly you anywhere for the cost of a first class ticket. Why spend millions of dollars when you can spend thousands and travel in complete safety and luxury?

Does anyone remember when Caroline Kennedy and John John crashed his aircraft by flying at night even though he was not certified? People are going to take all kinds of stupid risks. Ever notice how many people crash on the interstate after a bad rainstorm? Man I hate to see how this could work.

Paul Moller is a clever fraud. After decades of development he doesn't have anything anywhere near production...and never will. His business is deceiving investors and getting grants.

Check out innovator Klaus Savier, owner of Light Speed Engineering based at Santa Paula Airport (SZP) in Southern California. CA to FL in 9 hours & just 25 gallons - 2.87Gal/hour at 220 mph - 76mpg - that's economy! and cut the speed and it goes up towards 100mpg.

Just like the dreams of self-propelled, enclosed vehicles, and self-propelled flight, flying cars are a dream that won't die. If it works in the Jetsons, Star Wars or Star Trek universe, it will eventually work here in the "non-fiction" universe. Creative minds will always find ways to make large-scale dreams come true.

I don't think this will happen until we can get rid of wings and props.. I definitely don't want to be in the air with the same people that are on the highway now.. Until it's like the Jetsons.. I think it's a horrible idea.. Nice plane though.. I can see how this video might appeal to Baywatch fans...

This is a great idea but how is this "affordable" when people can't even afford to fill up their car's gas tanks now?

Eco fags! Good one. You make so many valid points! We need more people like you in the world.

instead of building a whole entire personal aircraft why not build personal flyers out of the poor cars in the junk yard. There is lots of available parts for dirt cheap and since the basic body is rigid enough and once stripped down light enough all you need is to cut out a few metal sheets and build wings and inducted turbo props at each wheel well. Then figure out a simple direct control system and were on our way!

Also I don't think that the accidents would be as back as the nay sayers would believe. If the models are designed to reach a similar terminal velocity and ceiling it would be like seeing a bunch of geese flying. Though swarms of PAVs might be a problem i think in the future that with GPS and pre determined flight routes that could help reduce the risk of swarming. Also i would prefer a VTOL flyer and not even need a runway. That way the roads could be used to grow crops

Flying cars by 2010 ! Sounds excellent but where are they ? I havven't heard of them at all fingers crossed though

I can't wait until these PAV's are production!