Flying Cars may be coming soon!

[Roundabout]

Flying Cars Ready To Take Off

Have you ever dreamt about the day you can buzz around in your very own flying machine? Well, that day may be sooner than you think.

The folks at NASA have built something called “The Highway in the Sky.” It's a computer system designed to let millions of people fly whenever they please, and take off and land from wherever they please, in their very own vehicles.

And here’s the good news -- a lot of people are building machines you’ll be able to buy.

One of those people is an inventor named Woody Norris. This week, he will receive America’s top prize for invention. It’s called the Lemelson-MIT award -- a half-million dollar cash prize to honor his life’s work, which includes a brand new personal flying machine. Correspondent Bob Simon reports.

It's called the AirScooter, and self-taught inventor Woody Norris says it goes on sale later this year.

Norris, 66, asked one of his test pilots to demonstrate the AirScooter for 60 Minutes on a hilltop outside San Diego, Calif. It can fly for 2 hours at 55 mph, and go up to 10,000 feet above sea level.

"Look how quickly it stops, hovers, sideways, sideways, straight down," Norris tells Simon.

Everything is controlled from the motorcycle-like handle bar. Push it forward and the two counter-rotating blades pivot forward. Push it back and it goes back. Norris says you won’t need a pilot’s license if you fly it under 400 feet in non-restricted air space. And he’s going to sell it for $50,000.

What does he think he'll be able to make off of the AirScooter?

"Well, I've done the math. I think it's a modest number if you could sell a couple thousand, when you look at snowmobiles and quads and those things -- not cars," says Norris. "That's a big market. But if we sold say a couple thousand, $50,000 a piece, that's a billion dollars."

A lot of inventors have tried to cash in on personal flying machines. One, built in 1956, was known as Molt Taylor’s Aerocar. You could detach the wings and haul them behind you. But they failed to catch on because they were too expensive and hard to fly in bad weather.

More important, there was no way to really manage all the potential traffic from millions of them buzzing around -- that is, until now. And that’s because NASA has come up with a plan to make personal flying machines a reality.

Bruce Holmes is one of NASA’s chief strategists and has served in the White House, where he worked on the future of aviation. He showed Simon a flight simulator, a new computer system that can be put into any new airborne vehicle. He says it will make flying easy, and will manage all the new traffic up there.

It’s called “The Highway in the Sky,” and here’s how it works: In a NASA animation, pilots focus on one main screen. It’s very much like a videogame. Keep the plane inside the box, away from other vehicles, and the plane’s computers automatically guide them towards their destination. They can even follow the highway down to the ground.

"What is different between what you're looking at here and what there is in a cockpit of a commercial aircraft?" asks Simon.

"Well, here's what's in the cockpit of a commercial aircraft," says Holmes. "So I can either use that to figure out where I am and how fast I should be going, and how high I should be, and all of those things, or I can look at a fairly intuitive picture of a highway in the sky."

It's a $130-million program that can also help pilots fly in bad weather. Even if it’s dark and stormy, pilots can use the screen to see what’s outside. It’s a technological breakthrough that will ultimately allow more people to fly than ever before. And NASA says it will draw on modern day satellites and global positioning systems to track the flying vehicles -- to prevent them from bumping into each other. Holmes believes all this new technology has reinvigorated the race to build the personal flying machine of tomorrow.

What kind of inventions are people working on today? "If you can imagine it, someone's trying it," says Holmes. "Everything from machines that can fly vertically that are easy to use. Easier to use. Some that can go way fast."

The Skycar is the latest attempt to build a real flying car. It's been described as a cross between a Ferrari and a Batmobile. Its inventor is Paul Moller, of Davis, Calif.

When its four sets of rotary engines tilt up, the car can blast off up into the sky. But Moller's only working prototype is tethered to a crane -- just in case it falls. Moller says the gasoline-fueled Skycar is designed to cruise at 300 mph, at an altitude of 20,000 feet.




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[yoda313]

Hello,

Nice idea but its a pipe dream. Never gonna happen.

If the auto industry doesn't nuke it first the airlines will.

Barring that LAWYERS will sue like crazy after the first crash!

Kevin

[doppletwo]

What about gas?


Flying requires more gas than rolling.

[jakol]

we use witch broom back home to fly, no need for expensive gas...

[pchan]

Harry Poter's Nimbus2000 ! No risk human or debre got suck into the jet engine !

[Noahtuck]

Hello,

Nice idea but its a pipe dream. Never gonna happen.

If the auto industry doesn't nuke it first the airlines will.

Barring that LAWYERS will sue like crazy after the first crash!

Kevin

never say never!!!!!!
Maybe not in our life time... but everything evolves sooner or later 8)

I remember a pc guru years ago saying they would never break 1000mhz!!!

Wait and see where we are in 10 years... i remember 10 years ago, 120mhz was SMOKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[yoda313]

Hello,

never say never!!!!!!
Maybe not in our life time... but everything evolves sooner or later

I remember a pc guru years ago saying they would never break 1000mhz!!!

No computers are different. Technology ALWAYS finds away a perceived barrier. Newer, smaller, faster processes will always be developed.

Now they MAY be able to get a limited "air highway" established but not for mass transit for individuals. The economy is just not setup that way. It would be great but there are too many entrenched industries that would fight it every step of the way.

And as I said earlier LAWSUITS would be the first thing to shut it down. If lack of profits doesn't kill it first.

Kevin

[AlecWest]

Nice idea but its a pipe dream. Never gonna happen.

Already has happened. Back in the 1960s, actor Bob Cummings had a TV show called "Love That Bob" ... and he bought and flew an "Aerocar" privately and in his show:

The article mentions the Aerocar briefly. But the difference between it and the AirScooter/Skycar is that the new vehicles are meant to be low-altitude aircraft ... and airspace up to 400 feet is "unregulated" by the FAA. In short, no pilot's licence required. Who knows. If they only cost $50,000 (less than some "ordinary" cars), some people might go for it.

Hehehe, I can see it now. A guy is using his Skycar on the freeway, going about 100 mph. A cop starts chasing him ... and the Skycar driver just tilts his props upward and leaves the road entirely. Might need more chopper cops, hehe.

[JohnnyCNote]

I wonder how it would work for someone who's lost his depth perception, and is colorblind - like myself. The display shown on 60 Minutes would be fine, but all of this is predicated on there being enough fuel to run the things, unless they develop another propulsion technology....

[ChrisX]

Hello,

Nice idea but its a pipe dream. Never gonna happen.

Kevin, do you know 'The Jetsons' at all?

I can remember when I was a kid of a watching TV cartoon by that name.

This would be about 40 years ago during the time of 'Star Trek TV' or earlier.

In in this cartoon, everyone flys a car everywhere just like a highway up the sky.

Have fun flying to work and to school.

ChrisX

[yoda313]

Hello,

Nice idea but its a pipe dream. Never gonna happen.

Kevin, do you know 'The Jetsons' at all?

I can remember when I was a kid of a watching TV cartoon by that name.

This would be about 40 years ago during the time of 'Star Trek TV' or earlier.

In in this cartoon, everyone flys a car everywhere just like a highway up the sky.

Have fun flying to work and to school.

ChrisX

CARTOON - nuff said

Kevin

--oh by the way "HELLO" ---