Are Flying Cars Even Possible?

[Bartmanhomer]

Are flying cars even possible? I know that this question been asked before by so many people but I want an honest answer. This is 2019 going to 2020 and flying cars haven't been invented yet. So I need to know are flying card even possible?

[Tvtyrant]

How are we defining a flying car? Are cheapish flying vehicles possible? Absolutely. Look up Autogyros as an example.

The issues are:
1. People are bad at flying, and it will never be safe to allow people without in depth training to fly or allow large numbers to fly in an area at the same time.
2. The fuel costs are always going to be high and are bad for the environment.

[Bartmanhomer]

How are we defining a flying car? Are cheapish flying vehicles possible? Absolutely. Look up Autogyros as an example.

The issues are:
1. People are bad at flying, and it will never be safe to allow people without in-depth training to fly or allow large numbers to fly in an area at the same time.
2. The fuel costs are always going to be high and are bad for the environment.

That seems like a bit of a contradiction. With training people will able to drive flying cars. And not everyone is bad at flying cars.

[Peelee]

Of course they're possible. We've had them for 80 years. Just because most people haven't bought one and learned how to drive it doesn't mean they're not around.

[Bartmanhomer]

Of course they're possible. We've had them for 130 years. Just because most people haven't bought one and learned how to drive it doesn't mean they're not around.

Well it's a vehicle and they still exist but it doesn't even count as a flying car.

[Peelee]

Well it's a vehicle and they still exist but it doesn't even count as a flying car.

Why not? It's a perfectly good flying car.

[Bartmanhomer]

Why not? It's a perfectly good flying car.

Well, I guess that consider a good flying car. But what about a flying car that hovers? (No magic, all technology.)

[Ninja_Prawn]

Gonna have to agree with Peelee here. Any vehicle that could conceivably be called a 'flying car' would be subject to the same limitations that currently apply to helicopters.

You're not going to be able to fly a car without a pilot's license, you're only going to be able to take off from proper airports (at least most of the time - where else will you find aviaton fuel, ground crew, secure parking, meteorological data and air traffic control all in one place?), they'll be super expensive to buy & maintain, and fuel efficiency will be terrible (compared to non flying transport, and considering how much harder it would be to electrify a passenger helicopter). Plus all that stuff about accidents being more deadly.

Since this theoretical 'flying car' you're trying to imagine wouldn't be any better than vehicles that already exist, it's pretty unlikely that anyone would invest in it, though I guess Silicon Valley has confounded expectations in that area a few times already.

[Tvtyrant]

That seems like a bit of a contradiction. With training people will able to drive flying cars. And not everyone is bad at flying cars.

Yes they are. Humans are innately bad at driving ground cars, 1/7500 have a lethal accident annually and 1/5 of us have an accident in that time. If you have flying cars and they were exactly as easy to drive 1/5 of our adult population would die annually (there are no good accidents while flying.)

We aren't build for three dimensional movement, so we would be worse at driving flying cars. That means that more then 1/5 of us would kill ourselves annually, making it the single most lethal thing in the world. Flying cars won't happen.

Well, I guess that consider a good flying car. But what about a flying car that hovers? (No magic, all technology.)

You just removed the breaks from regular cars. We have had hovercraft for decades, but the lack of good breaks and steering are a major drawback.

[Bartmanhomer]

Yes they are. Humans are innately bad at driving ground cars, 1/7500 have a lethal accident annually and 1/5 of us have an accident in that time. If you have flying cars and they were exactly as easy to drive 1/5 of our adult population would die annually (there are no good accidents while flying.)

We aren't build for three dimensional movement, so we would be worse at driving flying cars. That means that more then 1/5 of us would kill ourselves annually, making it the single most lethal thing in the world. Flying cars won't happen.



You just removed the breaks from regular cars. We have had hovercraft for decades, but the lack of good breaks and steering are a major drawback.

I disagree with you. I know accidents happen but not every accident is universally happen by human error. I can name a few things like Drunk driving, text message, distraction. A lot of it can be prevented.

[Tvtyrant]

Well, I guess that consider a good flying car. But what about a flying car that hovers? (No magic, all technology.)

I disagree with you. I know accidents happen but not every accident is universally happen by human error. I can name a few things like Drunk driving, text message, distraction. A lot of it can be prevented.

Those are all user error, and people aren't going to quit doing them. Technology changes, people don't. Train drivers and airline pilots get in trouble for exactly those things.

[Bartmanhomer]

Those are all user error, and people aren't going to quit doing them. Technology changes, people don't. Train drivers and airline pilots get in trouble for exactly those things.

True but it can still be easily prevented as simple as a time machine. LOL!

[Peelee]

I disagree with you. I know accidents happen but not every accident is universally happen by human error. I can name a few things like Drunk driving, text message, distraction. A lot of it can be prevented.

Think about drunk drivers, texting drivers, and distracted drivers all on the road, driving through a city. Think about how much damage they can cause in that city.

Now think about those same people, except flying over a city. They can cause WAY MORE damage. It is significantly worse. And those are all things those people have actually chosen to do. Those aren't mistakes, those are deliberate choices. Those people chose to get drunk and hop in the car, they chose to pull their phone out. That is human error. I don't know what else you'd call it.

[Bartmanhomer]

Think about drunk drivers, texting drivers, and distracted drivers all on the road, driving through a city. Think about how much damage they can cause in that city.

Now think about those same people, except flying over a city. They can cause WAY MORE damage. It is significantly worse. And those are all things those people have actually chosen to do. Those aren't mistakes, those are deliberate choices. Those people chose to get drunk and hop in the car, they chose to pull their phone out. That is human error. I don't know what else you'd call it.

Ohhh.....I see.

[Manga Shoggoth]

Are flying cars even possible? I know that this question been asked before by so many people but I want an honest answer. This is 2019 going to 2020 and flying cars haven't been invented yet. So I need to know are flying card even possible?

Not been invented? Hardly - there have been lots of prototypes, just nothing in production. They just aren't at all practical.

[jayem]

Including the very car like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerocar
I'm sure I saw a very car like autogyro over a stadium too... (but it might be the plane body on a helicopter I remember)

Flying boats have a early pedigree (although they are mainly normal planes that just use water as a flexible runway for bigger planes than the infrastructure could deal with)

[LordEntrails]

Are flying cars even possible? I know that this question been asked before by so many people but I want an honest answer. This is 2019 going to 2020 and flying cars haven't been invented yet. So I need to know are flying card even possible?

The Aerocar had 6 of them built in 1949. Link provided by another.

Did you even look before assuming they didn't exist?

Lots of marketing hype, but their are numerous examples out there. Look for 'aerocar', 'aeromobil', 'terrfugia', pal-v', 'aska', 'machina volantis', 'vahana', etc

Though many are nothing more than concepts, as pointed out, we've had actual working flying cars for 80 years or more and some of the newer ones have working prototypes too. You can also find hover cycles and such too if you look. Again, the issue with all of these is practicality.

[Bartmanhomer]

The Aerocar had 6 of them built in 1949. Link provided by another.

Did you even look before assuming they didn't exist?

Lots of marketing hype, but their are numerous examples out there. Look for 'aerocar', 'aeromobil', 'terrfugia', pal-v', 'aska', 'machina volantis', 'vahana', etc

Though many are nothing more than concepts, as pointed out, we've had actual working flying cars for 80 years or more and some of the newer ones have working prototypes too. You can also find hover cycles and such too if you look. Again, the issue with all of these is practicality.

No I haven't look into that. D'oh.

[Ravens_cry]

Possible? Yes. People have and repeatedly have built vehicles that can be both driven and flown. Practical for a replacement for the everyday automobile? No. Not yet at least, and I doubt ever, at least on Earth.

[The Random NPC]

Gonna have to agree with Peelee here. Any vehicle that could conceivably be called a 'flying car' would be subject to the same limitations that currently apply to helicopters.

You're not going to be able to fly a car without a pilot's license, you're only going to be able to take off from proper airports, they'll be super expensive to buy & maintain, and fuel efficiency will be terrible.

Fun fact, helicopters are allowed to land pretty much wherever they fit. There're a few companies catering to rich people that are basically Door Dash with helicopters.

[Mechalich]

There actually are a small number of vehicles currently in production that reasonably meet the classic science fiction idea of a flying car - something that is street legal to drive on the road and also capable of powered flight. The PAL-V Liberty is one such vehicle. Major strides have been made in recent years as a result of advancement in battery and electric motor technology. Future flying car concepts will probably be more like the Opener BlackFly which is more like a giant drone than either a car or a plane.

[DeTess]

This was actually in the news recently: https://www.theguardian.com/science/...to-you-by-2022

Personal flying vehicles are unlikely as explained before, but flying taxis piloted by properly trained individuals, or even potentually flying autonomously are possible.

[snowblizz]

I'm reminded of a Gyro Gearloose & Donald Duck story. Donald sees Gyro's convenient flying "car" while stuck in traffic. He asks for one for himself. No more sitting in traffic! More people see that and suddenly Gyro has a factory making them. Finally an invention that strikes rich!

Only, now everyone has one, and they all are stuck in traffic together in the sky instead. Including Gyro, who in the last frame ponders whether it was such a good idea to share the sky with everyone else.


Obviously they gloss over the part where any malfunction or human error not only includes your veloctiy, but adds gravital acceleration to any car crash.

Really, the concept of flying cars are flawed from the get go, not the flying part as a technical problem. What are flying cars? They are cars not bound to the road grid to give freedom of movement sort of, to get away from the "shackles of the roads". But why do we have roads for cars? Because we can't have you driving around all over the place. It's much better to have designated space for it, and other types of traffic. The same problem will exist for the sky, it already does in fact. The sky isn't limitless. Airtraffic is routed because it would cause havoc if it wasn't. The same would be true for flying cars. So at it's core the idea of flying cars is trying to solve a problem the vehicles themsleve sare causing. It just won't work.


And I agree with the idea that flying cars is probably going to be different from current cars in concept anyway.

[Vinyadan]

I think it depends on the conditions of the road, the speed of the vehicle, and the height of the speed bump.

[factotum]

I think the fuel economy issue is enough to prevent anyone making a flying car these days, even ignoring the obvious safety ones. We're trying to reduce our fuel consumption, not increase it.

[BWR]

Flying cars and jetpacks basically have the same problem.

[Rydiro]

You're not going to be able to fly a car without a pilot's license, you're only going to be able to take off from proper airports, they'll be super expensive to buy & maintain, and fuel efficiency will be terrible.

The fuel efficiency of gyros isnt all that bad. Its pretty close to that of a small car. Beats out a single driver in a traffic jam. The other problems are still valid though. Need landing strips, proper licence, have limited cargo, etc.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Well, I guess that consider a good flying car. But what about a flying car that hovers? (No magic, all technology.)

Exactly like a helicopter can you mean?

[Jay R]

Yes, flying cars are possible. But they do everything a real car does plus holding a heavy weight in the air, so they will always use more fuel than a road car.

They are subject to the same dangers as real cars, plus the dangers of falling (or of dropping something on somebody on the ground). So they are inherently more dangerous than road cars.

People have designed and built various flying machines. A working jet pack was displayed at Disneyland more than half a century ago. But its too expensive, and it's too dangerous, to ever become common.

[Aedilred]

In addition to the very good and valid points raised above, some repeatedly, just look at the various issues caused in the last few years by privately-operated drones.

Then multiply that by a factor with at least two zeroes on the end, to account for the flying cars' being bigger (and therefore more dangerous) and having real people inside them.

That is one of the reasons why they are unlikely ever to happen in a meaningful way.