Hot on eBay: Flying Car!

">  As best we can tell, this pup's legit. It's a prototype from the Sky Commuter program that Boeing evidently sunk $6 million into back in the 1980s. The program was dismantled—presumably because the concept didn't, er, fly—and this is the only surviving piece of hardware. Of all the flying car concepts that we see here at PopSci—and believe me, we see a lot—this one appears to be one of the most viable designs. It's lightweight, compact, and looks nicely balanced, with a single horizontal fan out front and two aft. The seller offers no explanation as to why the program failed, but most likely it had to do with technological limitations in both power and control, the two essentials of vertical-takeoff and landing vehicles. The craft evidently conducted hover tests, but not much more. The seller implies that it might be flyable, but the buyer would be a fool to attempt it. The same limitations that existed then exist in that hardware now, so all you'd achieve is a low hover and the strong likelihood of a crash. All that aside, this thing's a beauty—elegant, seemingly very well-built, and rich in history. That canopy alone is a work of art. Check the pics to see the cartoonishly white-suited Air Force Thunderbird pilots checking it out. Let's hope it lands in a museum someplace... —Eric Adams

Comments

[maxxim]

i nead this car

[SCIENCE AND SCIENTIST - Inquiring into the Origin of Matter and Life]

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SCIENCE AND SCIENTIST
Inquiring into the Origin of Matter and Life
January-March 2008

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Modern science has generally been directed toward investigating
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In our modern era science and religion are the predominating
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[eBay Business Account]

That car looks awesome. I would pay anything to own it. Has anyone made any bids on it yet?

[Richard A. Strong]

Eric - You can see my aircar design at www.strongware.com/dragon.

[sergey]

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[payday Loan]

Such a great invention!!! Inventions are at times otherworldly and amazing, and at times very mundane. The U.S. is a land that has a long history of them. Some of America’s most famous inventions include things like bifocals, the polio vaccine, and some controversial ones as well. There have been a few in the last year or two which seem straight out of science fiction. A flying car that gets 35 mpg, which can fold its wings and fit into the average garage, and it goes for about $200,000. There’s also a GPS headset system that mounts directly to a cow’s head-now we can finally find where the beef is. No doubt that the rest of the century will reveal some other astonishing inventions.

[Cars for sale Philippines]

Oh! this flying car was so cool. Hmmmmm... I am planning to buy flying car if they make sure that is real safe.

-seff-

[Van Leasing]

I visited this blog first time and found it very interesting and informative.. Keep up the good work thanks..

[Matthew Dewhirst]

Its a good car and yes it flys but not by using air itself. This car has the potential but the use of fans dosen't really making it hover but by forcing air out of a small container at a spped could one day project cars and ships anywhere.

[Cars for sale Philippines]

Hi its me again! I've already shown this post to my sister and she was so interested in this. She told me that in the future, all cars and motorcycle would likely possess the technology required to fly. Anyway, I've been looking for topics as interesting as this. Looking forward to your next post.

-seff-

[eBay Misspellings Tool]

I wonder if it still has the manual in the glove box. Seriously, the CRT monitor is a nice touch, that just makes it look more legit.