Steve M. (09:00:57) :

http://www.vortechonline.com/g1/

Not a flying car…ultralight helicopter, and it requires no pilot license.

Unfortunately no cargo space, and extemely dangerous. Anything with open spinning rotors like that will always be too dangerous for everyday use by the average person. Not just because of the danger of someone getting too close, but of hitting obstructions.

There’s still the single element of failure that will cause one to plummet to their deaths. Acutally multiple single elements (engine failure, loss of fuel, main rotor damage/failure, tail rotor damage/failure)

Seems plausible to me…The Mayans do say that the current age will end in 2012.

Not a flying car…ultralight helicopter, and it requires no pilot license.

I have seen pictures of Bob when he was a boy flying the car with his father, disassembling it, driving it in the roads, etc. ee here the news about Robert Fulton’s death at the age of 96. Or Google him.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19307-2004May11.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_with_the_Golden_Gun_(film)

Attempting to place a homing device, she is locked into Scaramanga’s car, an AMC Matador, as he drives away. Bond follows him in an AMC Hornet ‘X’ with Sheriff J.W. Pepper at his side — whom he encounters when acquiring the vehicle — and a car chase across Bangkok ensues, concluding at a barn in the countryside outside the city with Scaramanga’s car transforming into a plane and flying away to his island in the Yellow Sea near China.

http://www.jamesbondmm.co.uk/vehicles/flying-amc-matador

Um, harvesting a minor nit… This has 3 wheels, so it’s a motorcycle, and a rotor, so it’s a gyrocopter. It is not a flying car. It is not a roadable airplane.

The rules for motorcycles are, IMHO “Willing to die in it? OK, you’re certified.” – BTW, I own 4 motorcycles, 2 of which are working… so I’m not coming at this from some uninformed position. I’ve been riding for 40+ years now. That I’ve lived through it is luck, paranoia, and a couple of helmets with good ‘leathers’. “a few” of my motorcycles did not…

AFAIK, the rules for gyrocopters have not significantly advanced since the autogyro days, but that’s uninformed bigotry on my part. (I have seen one article claiming this, but don’t know to which country they were referring…)

Also, any licensing under the ‘experimental’ rules forbids operation in urban areas, congested air space, etc. etc. You don’t just head to the SFO TCA for lunch on Market Street… It’s for rural use, not commuting to work downtown. (I’ve piloted a glider in another time, long ago, and I’ve flown a hot air balloon – inside hanger 1 at Moffett NAS where they used to park blimps. It’s a lot bigger in there than it looks!)

Given those qualifiers: Heck, I’d love to have one of these at a reasonable price!

A dent on an automobile is a cosmetic problem.

A dent on an aircraft is a STRUCTURAL PROBLEM.

Let’s put a 3″ deep dent in the side of a Cessna 182. Cost to repair?

Certified A&P, probably about 1 week to do the job. And about $5000.

Cost to have inspected and recertified, another $1500.

Total cost: $6500. Likelyhood of a dent: 1 per year. Insurance rate? Probably $600 a month.

Cool!

I’m sure John Travolta will love his.

Mark from MN

I used to have an old IH Scout that I’d get airborne every time I went over a certain railroad crossing near my house. The tracks were rough and the launch angle (steep!) was perfect to get all four wheels off the ground going over the tracks. At a speed of just under 45 miles per hour, it made for a perfect landing on the other side of the tracks. (“Those were the days, my friends.”)