Comments on: Cars That Fly (Oct, 1958)

By: Anon.

Anon. — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 02:41:17 +0000

It’s amazing how many of these “clever” designs died because the inventors never thought about fuel efficiency; practical in every way except terribly, terribly inefficient. Cheap-oil-era thinking, I guess.

By: Rich Strong

Rich Strong — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 19:52:52 +0000

You are cordially invited to see my StrongMobile Flying Car Project at http://www.strongware.com/dragon. You can view a 2-minute video of my full-size mockup model and consider the part about “Busting the Myths”.
I would greatly appreciate any opinions or recommendations you may care to offer.

Rich Strong (Major,USAF,Retired)

By: GaryM

GaryM — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:07:23 +0000

It would probably have even more difficulty making a suddn stop.

By: jayessell

jayessell — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:34:01 +0000

John, I suspect an aircushion vehicle would have difficulty climbing a 5% grade.

By: Beagledad

Beagledad — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:33:57 +0000

I’m STILL WAITING for my flying car . . . .

By: John Savard

John Savard — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:44:40 +0000

Of course, the Hoover Constellation vacuum cleaner did make it to reality, but on a larger scale, whether the problem was energy, how flat the roads would need to be, or brakes, even the floating car never made it, never mind the flying car.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:47:15 +0000

The Levapad is one of the approaches to the hovercraft that was tried in the 1950s. It did not work very well. Ultimately even the winning design (which has a “curtain” of high-pressure air jets round the outside, held in by a rubber “skirt”) didn’t revolutionise the world as was once thought: hovercraft are noisy and use a lot of fuel. As for cars travelling at “well above 100mph”, that of course is also possible with wheels: the limiting factor isn’t the car, but the driver. You just don’t have enough time to react when you’re going that fast.

By: scud

scud — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:39:10 +0000

So basically those are hovercrafts with metal cushion instead of normal (soft) one? And only 40 years later I will hop into my primitive car with wheels and go looking for the nearest hovercraft…