hoverboards? hovercrafts?flying cars space ships werent we supposed to have these by now? do we have them? when might they be available?
2006-06-23 18:56:52 · 3 answers · asked by antelias 2 in Cars & Transportation ➔ Other - Cars & Transportation
Ground effect vehicles (a.k.a hovercraft) have been around for some time, though most folks can only get radio controlled scale models....there are, however, some high-speed ferries that use ground effect support to travel, mainly around the UK and Canada I hear...
I have heard hoverboards are doable but not in widespread use yet, something about safety liability issues, seems folks have more trouble keeping *on* these than they do with mundane wheeled skateboards.
As for the rest.....doable but chances are in America, land of the CEO Despot, home of Big Oil, we won't see them any time soon, which is a shame...
Because if you work it right you can get the liftoff for free, at least over much of the earth. Do a Yahoo or Google advanced search for the phrase "auto-magnetic levitation" alone or in use with "Permanent magnet grids". It seems one of the *few* practical applications for the magnetic technology of a high-energy particle accelerator is that one can make a permanent magnet grid on the bottom surface of, say, a skateboard, such that when you move that surface with any speed it will automatically create induction off of the earth's magnetic field and *float* so long as speed is maintained. :)
So yeah, if it weren't for Big Freaking Oil...we could at least *try* to have safe, cheap low-altitude personal flight systems up and running, like....tomorrow...
(well, maybe not, since those permanent magnetic grids might not be terribly friendly to cell phones or laptop computers, ouch, or power lines....)
2006-06-23 19:08:19 · answer #1 · answered by Bradley P 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have seen hovercrafts on TV, even saw a show where two teams were competing to build one from scratch. One team used a surfboard, and leaf blowers, and some other stuff. Now we do have the space shuttle and probably some other stuff the government doesn't want us to know about. Where do you think all that tax revenue is being used for?
2006-06-24 02:05:13 · answer #2 · answered by Jennifer 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Someone answered an earlier question about this same subject with something I checked out a few months back; the Moller skycar. Right now, it's still in it's million-dollar price range.
http://www.moller.com/skycar
For another kind of technology, go to the link below. I think it would make a very nice fuel for cars.
http://www.videosift.com/story.php?id=2652
2006-07-01 00:51:16 · answer #3 · answered by Contrast 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋