The solution to gridlock on our overcrowded roads is to take to the air in a plane-car hybrid that will revolutionise the way society works. This vision of the future twenty years hence was revealed at the 2008 Electric Aircraft Symposium held a stone's throw from San Francisco airport in California. Plotting the next frontier in green technology was Richard Jones, a technical fellow at Boeing Phantom Works. He said "Today I am talking about making aviation available to everyone as a daily means of transportation. Transportation changes society." "When they dumped the horse and cart people took over two continents. 150 years ago steam turned America into a nation. Today 50 per cent of the world lives in urban areas thanks to the car. And in the last 50 years, the aviation industry has made one world thanks to the airplane." Future transportation: Boeing's research group is designing a hybrid aimed at travelling 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. This Mr Jones believes could make the compact plane easier to drive than a car. "People will probably be reading a newspaper rather than flying the vehicles." He said that they will be powered using electricity and /or batteries making them the "cleanest transportation of the future.

" This sneak peak at the world twenty years from now was eagerly welcomed by the assembled group of engineers, scientists, venture capitalists and chief executives who were brought together by the CAFE Foundation, a non profit organisation that promotes personal air travel. The organisation's President Brien Seeley said that there were good sound reasons for believing that such a hybrid will be an everyday part of life.

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Now we would know that any mass transportation on a individual basis involving flying thru the air only means one thing....drunks crashing to the ground and any poor slob or house or anything they crash into.

These may work well in good weather. Even with computers controlling the craft, bad weather will make a small plane uncontrollable. I cant see it becoming a dependable replacement for the Auto.
I would rather see more elevated rail service between cities than this.

When I look up into the day or night sky to enjoy that unspoiled view I don't want to be seeing "aerocars" whizzing through the sky above my head. What we need are hovercrafts that run just above the ground so our roads can be replaced with greenspaces. That's how I imagine the future, silent cars running above roads made of natural grasses.

Never will happen. Just how many airports do you think they will need for all those planes. One in every garage??? Not. On top of that there will be more people in this world and much more space needed for living. I can just see the crashed happening over the skys of California. If they drive the planes like they drive their cars it would be a disaster.

that's all we need. bad impatient drives to take to the air.....

I can imagine chavs dropping things out the windows like overgorwn sea gulls.......

I can imagine taxi drivers in South Africa in Air taxis. We already refer to the minibuses as PCU'S
(Population Control Units).

Their driving is apalling no stopping at red lights turns in front of oncoming traffic etc.

For quite some time, flying cars have been a reality. It can be done no problem. However the FAA seems to have the same conerns everyone else has. People are stupid. *shrug* Currently, in order to own a flying car, you have to be a licensed pilot and you should have a gazillion dollars because the Mollar ain't cheap. LOL.

As it stands now, where I live, I know people who live out in the sticks and some of them are rich enough to travel in by heliocopter for work (with a pilot, I know of none that fly their own). They land on our soccer field every day. Now if that could be affordable to the average Joe, that's not a bad idea. But if it's in the air, it really will need to comply with FAA rules (which if I'm not mistaken is international already) and licensed pilots must fly the craft.