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]

We thought you might be interested --


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

Bhaktivedanata Institute's latest quarterly newsletter
is now available online.

You can download the January-March 2008 issue from:
http://scienceandscientist.org/current.php

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What's it about?

Modern science has generally been directed toward investigating
the material world, excluding consideration of the conscious
scientist who is essential to the whole process, since, of
course, the very existence of the scientific endeavor itself
depends upon consciousness. Complete scientific knowledge must
consequently include both objective science and subjective
consciousness.


In addition to other programs, Bhaktivedanta Institute's Science
and Scientist Newsletter is humbly offered to inspire scientists
and scholars to contribute their sincere efforts toward
developing this grand synthesis. The result will be valuable not
only for helping to better understand the "hard" problems of
science such as the nature and origin of life and the cosmos, the
mind-brain connection, artificial intelligence, etc. But the
pressing problems of ethics in science, world peace, and
interfaith dialog will also benefit from a more inclusive
scientific worldview.


In our modern era science and religion are the predominating
influences determining the fate of mankind. Promoting and
developing a culture of harmony between such diverse fields has
the potential to expand our conception of reality and advance
human knowledge in the new millennium, in which it is said the
study of life will be pre-eminent. Let us welcome the dawn of
that new epoch with great hope and determined endeavor.
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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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