Personal Aviation Redux
No, your Chevy won't be able to hover like George Jetson's car in the next two decades, but a number of projects are in the works that could make daily flights a part of more people's travel routines.
Personal aviation--the idea that everyone could own and operate their own personal flying vehicle as a daily means of transportation--is not a new concept. Sci-fi writers have proposed it for decades, and S)T touched on the concept briefly last year in a brief on mobility discontinuities for our Global Lifestyles project (subscribers only). Now, the concept is getting some new attention. For example:
Boeing's research group is designing a hybrid aimed at traveling up to 300 miles at a time. It will use precision navigation systems that would allow the average 'driver cum pilot' to fly without special training thanks to a computerised 'flight instructor' built into the cockpit.
The plan is to make the navigational software so precise that the "pilot" could "be reading a newspaper rather than flying the vehicles." Worries about the environmental impacts of so many personal aviation vehicles whizzing over our heads are central to the Boeing project, which has a goal of 100 MPG fuel economy.
In the nearer term, Slovenia's Pipistrel (one of their current craft is pictured above) has designed an electronic glider that is set to launch by the end of 2008:
Their Taurus Electro can climb to 6,000 feet after taking off using a 30-kilowatt motor. Recharging the glider's lithium-polymer battery is meant to take about as long as charging a cell phone. And weather permitting, the glider can travel 1,000 miles a day. Pipistrel's head of research and development Tine Tomazic says they already have over a dozen orders for the plane.
These vehicles are still a little too pricey for the masses ($132,000 each). But, as roads become more congested worldwide and designers are able to make personal aviation vehicles more fuel-efficient, it's possible that new commuter travel lines could open up in the sky. To see more concepts for personal aviation vehicles, check out the CAFE foundation, which, along with NASA, is offering up to $300,000 in prizes for development of environmental-friendly personal air vehicles.
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Kyle Spector
in Mobility
1 Comment
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Reader Comments (1)
Sao Paolo, Brazil, has the largest fleet of private helicopters in the world. In SP, it is an absolute necessity and not really an option for executives to take a heli-taxi; rampant kidnappings and unescapable traffic (that makes LA's freeways look deserted during rush hour) have been the primary drivers of this trend-now all new construction over 10 stories has a helipad.
So if necessity is the mother of all invention I'm sure that it won't be long before we find this trend trickling down into the mainstream, in fact I don't understand why LA hasn't jumped on this trend and made it uniquely LA (rhinestone crusted heli's anyone?)