On the other hand, when I was young (’50s), we were promised personal flying cars by the ’70s. Oops. On the other hand, nobody expected the internet or the PC.

Flying, on the other hand, can be fun, and when it isn’t, they have had autopilots for a very long time.

There is no doubt in my mind that the gov’t should stay the hell out of the arts however I wonder how many people are employed in government-supported arts programs versus the auto industry and how much financial support they receive versus the auto industry. I doubt they are comparable.

I come from a GM town. Seeing all those people paid exorbitant wages and benefits to waste their lives in a vegetative state, constantly encouraged to do less work for more money with fewer responsibilities borders on criminal in my mind.

Perhaps if its fully automated, it would work. We’re then talking about massive bandwidth needed for the links between the massive computers needed to control the airplanes and the massive computers needed onboard the aircraft to insure highly dynamically unstable aircraft fly, with the levels of redundancy that the general public would require.

I disagree. This invention is as good as cellphones, and as with them, our fledgling teenagers will adopt and out-utilize and out-imagine us all. Once they’re available, all the most earnest well-meaning top-down Public Good ‘regulations’ will not avail against the freehand operators. As with AK-47s and computers, there will be shops everywhere turning out counterfeit illegal patent-busting copies, and the happy chaos in the skies is practically guaranteed. Perhaps every family should invest in a nice 12-gauge shotgun to defend hearth and home against these carplanes (and against the football-sized models which already exist, and have the ability to fly up to your upstairs window and broadcast TV images of your doings).

Much of it is simply intellectual. Most people really don’t think in three dimentions, and only after expensive training is one really good at it.

Perhaps if its fully automated, it would work. We’re then talking about massive bandwidth needed for the links between the massive computers needed to control the airplanes and the massive computers needed onboard the aircraft to insure highly dynamically unstable aircraft fly, with the levels of redundancy that the general public would require.

I recall that story. I think it was in Analog or Astounding in the late 50’s. What happened was a Soviet scientist, desperate to publish so to justify his work and be able to afford red cabbage soup, came up with an article about how the particles in the tails of comets repulse one another. The USAF had just did a publicity stunt with a new jet bomber and hauled several tons of powered milk over a long distance at a record setting speed. Desperate to come up with a publicity counter, the Soviets touted the comet particle study as the greatest discovery of all time. Then people started thinking and found you could make a personal flying pack using those principles. The Red Army was equipped with the flying packs, whereupon they all left, went to the West and traded the packs for vodka and wristwatches. Unable to prevent their population from leaving, the USSR fell apart. The Soviet scientist emigrated to the West, where he got a nice position with a university but complained that he never could get any good red cabbage soup any more.

Note this really did happen in a way. A Soviet scientist published an obscure article that led to the U.S. developing stealth aircraft. The ability of such aircraft to penetrate any air defense was shown in Desert Storm. After the Berlin Wall came down, Red Army troops found they could go to the West and trade their AK-47’s for vodka and wristwatches (really!). Unable to defend itself against air attack and with an army that was mostly drunk and in jail, the USSR fell apart.

Steeple: I’m with you! I was just up flying and finally gave up and came down. There was someone in the airport pattern flying such a huge circuit that I gave up after 20 min. And that was someone flying under the current rules and requirements!