tandempower

The CEO of Airbus forecasts flying cars by year's end. Although the article mentions nothing about using flight for local public transit, it does mention multiple passengers and ride-sharing. Reading it, I was reminded of a claim Elon Musk once expressed about the possibility of electric vertical take-off/landing aircraft, which would replace long runways with landing pads/fields.

Presumably, any local flight technologies would be reserved for a high-paying elite for a while, at least. If the price would come down, the question is how much of such air traffic would be acceptable within urban air-spaces. The FAA has already put restrictions on airborne drone-deliveries and other drone flight for this reason. On the other hand, could certain corridors be designated for 'hover-buses' to transport regular bus-loads of people across congested cities or between regional destinations? If so, would this be a win for LCF, or would people find ways to rent and drive cars wherever they land?

Darth Lefty 

"Car-sharing" was the thing that didn't catch on before Lyft and Uber, right? I think executives in skyscrapers already have this. Pretty sure they mostly don't have a helicopter sitting in a hangar waiting for them, that's a dumb use of a helicopter, it needs to be running all day to keep itself paid for.

fietsbob

Mid air collisions abundant right, left up and down ..

Walter S

It takes so much fuel to fly not to mention the awful noise and and and and there's so much more to object to I won't bother.

CliffordK

Perhaps passenger drones?

I agree, however, it sounds like a crazy concept, expensive, dangerous, & least fuel efficient.

I could imagine new sky tram lines running on cables.

Rollfast

Meet George Jetson!


That was 1960. It will be no closer to reality in 2060.

Now...

If you weren't paying attention, the airline industry is suffering right now and Airbus makes passenger jets. Connect the dots and yawn...of course they would forecast that


Even business jet makers are facing consolidation or failure due to a large number of used models and decreasing demand for new business jets.

Walter S

My sixth grade social studies book had a chapter on what life would be like after "the year 2000". It started with a picture of a city that was shrouded in a sky high network of vacuum tubes that pulled little cars with two or three passengers. It worked just like the department store systems for sending papers around the building when I was a kid.

I feel a little cheated. I should be used to flying in a vacuum tube downtown when I feel like it. I'm sure the automotivists are the reason.

Walter S

I believe that in the future the number of car free will continue to vary primarily with respect to the amount of high density housing occupants. Outside of that niche there will be some negligible to minor growth in the number of car free as a result of infrastructure improvements. Such improvements will have a minor impact on the number of bicycle commuters. The increase in LCF will be substantially less still.

I do think infrastructure will reduce short drives in the car. That's about it.

Rollfast

No shot at that when people are splayed out for miles just to work in the city.


The infrastructure is for a exoskeleton.

Walter S

I agree. I still think short drives will be reduced by improving infrastructure for use by the people that already live in the city which includes myself and millions of others.

CliffordK

I bet they groan whenever a new "green" news story comes out.

But, modern maintenance is excellent. I doubt many business jets hit the same fatigue lifetimes that the commercial jets hit.

So, I could imagine a used jet getting a full custom refurb, and being almost as good as new, for a lot less.

No doubt companies hold onto their jets for quite some time, unless there is suddenly some extreme new development. But, I can imagine better nav systems, but the actual fuselages and engines probably change very slowly.

Nope, not like buying your latest aircraft material Trek.

mconlonx

wolfchild

Of all the silliness posted on LCF forum this one wins for being the most silly of them all.

I-Like-To-Bike

I dunno, there are plenty of worthy candidates for that prize, some posted quite recently.

Walter S

If you want efficient, how about traveling around in vacume tubes? Why ET3? | Evacuated Tube Transport Technologies

Walter S

If we keep them out of the air that works too and solves the other glaring problems flying cars have.

wolfchild

Here is my contribution to this failed thread...The future of human transportation.

Roody

This is pretty much what Elon Musk's Hyperloop consists of. I think a demonstration project was just announced, so it looks more feasible than one might think. Of course, Musk is talking about long-range transport, not local.

Also the pneumatic tube systems extended far beyond department stores. There were fairly extensive systems in several large cities. Mail from the downtown post office in NYC went to Harlem in 20 minutes and there was even a tube across the East River to Brooklyn.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperloop

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneuma..._New_York_City

Rollfast

Then you gotta LAND.

tandempower

I was riding part-way to school with my son recently and before parting ways to head for our respective destinations, I was reminded of how George Jetson sent is family off in little autonomous pods to their respective destinations as well. Maybe the Jetsons was a high-tech metaphor for the expectation that in the future families would bike together in clusters before separating off on individual bikes.

Rollfast

The interstate highway system was hardly in place in 1960, still being built in many places, and people used older state and U.S. Routes/Highways a lot more then.


In 2017, the main arterial between Ontario, Oregon and Boise was Highway 30. It's so rarely traveled now that it has become a country road between New Plymouth and Caldwell, Idaho and you can see Interstate 84 for much of the way. This is just over 55 years after the interstate (originally part of I-80) was built through here.

tandempower

Why did you quote my post to say that, exactly?

Rollfast

Because.

exBromptonite

Check THIS out!!!

lilium-electric-aircraft-maiden-flight-04-21-2017



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