1.07.2005

Watch the Skies

“It’s times like this it occurs to me that we were lied to by The Jetsons.”

“What are you talking about?”

“According to that show we were supposed to be tooling around in flying cars by now. You see any flying cars lately?”

— “The Flying Car

Well, maybe not so much a lie anymore.

I can’t believe I never brought it up here before, but there actually is a flying car in development. The Moller M400 Skycar is a working prototype of just such a device (a “volantor,” as they call it). In fact, if you’ve got a bit of spare change lying around — say, between ten and a hundred grand for a deposit (depending on how soon you want it)  — you can actually preorder one of the things. According to their estimates, FAA approval should occur before the end of 2006.

For those of us with a bit less in the way of disposable income, we’ll have to settle for a die-cast model of the thing.

But who knows? Moller may not be the only manufacturer for long. At this week’s L.A. Auto Show, Mercedez-Benz unveiled its concept for a flying car as part of the “Ultimate L.A. Machine” design competition.

Now, this has the distinct disadvantage of being merely a design, whereas the Skycar is actually a working model. But damn, this is what I think about when I think “flying car.” Of course, that’s probably just because the swing-out wheels and gull-wing doors remind me of the DeLorean.

But hey, with Virginia looking to eliminate the hybrid HOV exemption (and probably rightly so), I figure the only way to go is up.

(L.A. Auto Show coverage courtesy of the L.A. Voice, found via Jalopnik, in turn found via an ad on Wonkette.)

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