If a flying car is invented, how will the "air road" system work?

Question

If a flying car is invented will we be able to fly wherever we want, or will there be some organized system?

Answer 1

It is a nice little fantasy but in reality, millions of "hovercars" and such that individuals actually controlled would never work, people are idiots.

Imagine all of the clunkers you see driving around right now, broke down on the side of the road, now imagine the same thing except these clunkers can fly, sometimes..... would you want to be around when the clunker that joe dirt is holding together with duct tape and bailing wire decides to fall apart?

Answer 2

More than likely a "flying car" would be controlled by GPS and a WIFI interface. Today's small airplanes are so much easier to fly with moving map GPS - this device allows the pilot to know within roughly 5 square feet of where they are in the air. Altitude, direction, speed, and a color graphic map is displayed where they are geographically. When WIFI is expanded nationally - beyond the local coffee houses and occasional bars and other private providers there will be a very effective way to control location and direction. This will allow virtually unlimited vehicles to share the airspace as the WIFI will be able to know where each vehicle will be by the millisecond.

There have been "sky-ways" for many years that pilots have used to navigate long distances via radio signals. Now that GPS allows a very direct root without fear of loosing your guidance these sky-ways do not have the same necessity.

Answer 3

Dude! It HAS been invented!

The Skycar

Moller International has developed the first and only feasible, personally affordable, personal vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicle the world has ever seen.


You've always known it was just a matter of time before the world demanded some kind of flying machine which would replace the automobile. Of course, this machine would have to be capable of VTOL, be easy to maintain, cost effective and reliable. Well, we at Moller International believe we have come up with the solution. That solution is the volantor named M400 Skycar.

Let's compare the M400 Skycar with what's available now, the automobile. Take the most technologically advanced automobile, the Ferrari, Porsche, Maserati, Lamborgini, or the more affordable Acura, Accord, or the like. It seems like all of the manufacturers of these cars are touting the new and greatly improved "aerodynamics" of their cars. Those in the aerospace industry have been dealing with aerodynamics from the start. In the auto industry they boast of aerodynamics, performance tuned wide track suspensions, electronic ignition and fuel injection systems, computer controllers, and the list goes on. What good does all this "advanced engineering" do for you when the speed limit is around 60 MPH and you are stuck on crowded freeways anyway?

Can any automobile give you this scenario? From your garage to your destination, the M400 Skycar can cruise comfortably at 275 MPH (maximum speed of 375 MPH) and achieve up to 20 miles per gallon on clean burning, ethanol fuel. No traffic, no red lights, no speeding tickets. Just quiet direct transportation from point A to point B in a fraction of the time. Three dimensional mobility in place of two dimensional immobility.

No matter how you look at it the automobile is only an interim step on our evolutionary path to independence from gravity. That's all it will ever be.

Moller International's M400 Skycar volantor is the next step.


Click on Skycar image to view flight test videos.

http://www.moller.com/skycar/m400/m400-flag.jpg

http://www.moller.com/images/vidlinkimg.jpg

Answer 4

This might surprise you, but there is already a system of "roads" in the air. Aircraft flying under Instrument Flight Rules can use the Federal Airway System. In the United States, these are called Victor airways below 18,000 feet and jetways above 18,000 feet. They pretty much work like roads, just wider (8 miles wide).

It's all speculation, but I'd imagine it would work the same way with flying cars. Even with GPS, we don't fly "wherever we want".

Answer 5

It would have to be part of our current Air Traffic Control system. The flying cars (and there's a viable one that could hit the market at some time soon), must share airspace with other aircraft.

Right now, to fly a private airplane, you must have some training and fly VFR with radio contact with airports in certain high traffic areas.

There is no way they'd just let thousands of these things take to the air! It would be to dangerous.

So expect some training to be required. A private pilots license and radios for communication with other aircraft.

Answer 6

There will have to be an organized system, because of danger of air collision. Even in the roads You can't go wherever You want anyway.

Answer 7

Did you see Back to the Future part 2? There are roads going in the air everywhere. It's a great question. I think the best way would just be a different direction at a different altitude. So everyone at 100 feet would all be going east. Sounds good to me!

Answer 8

See the Moeller Flying Car... what a great potential product.

Using GPS, probably. There will be levels of flight for transect, local, etc. with drop off points in the GPS mapping matrix and clear "lanes" in the sky.

Answer 9

I would imagine it'd be regulated much like the FAA regulates aircraft travel. There'd be designated "lanes" (likely unmarked, existing virtually and tracked by GPS-esque equipment). I would point to The Fifth Element and Star Wars: Episode II as two movies showcasing examples of how this may work.

Answer 10

The mere feasibility of the Moeller skycar does not mean that it is viable in large quantities even after economies of scale. The "solotrek" a simpler design had a better chance but died from lack of funding. There will be regulation of course. If oil prices basically remain only slightly higher, we will continue to have gridlock, the only solution is a second story tube system, as strange as that sounds...
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