WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: Where's My Flying Car? 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:14.200 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:16.919 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with iHeart Radio and 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:20.040 I love all things tech and is time for another 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:23.200 classic episode of tech Stuff. This one originally published back 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:27.720 on December two, two thousand thirteen. It is titled Where's 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:31.400 My Flying Car. I don't know how I resisted the 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:34.920 urge to title it dude, where's my Flying Car? But 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:39.800 somehow I did. Anyway, as you may guess, this is 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:44.040 an episode about flying cars and why ain't they everywhere already? 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:47.800 Gosh darn it, let's listen in if this is the future, 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:51.120 Where's my flying car? Where's my jet flying car? Why 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:54.400 are my meals in pill form? It's because jet packs 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:57.480 and flying cars are really dangerous. Yeah, they're not practical 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:00.960 very much, and at least not yet, and they're really 0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:04.679 tricky to do in a way that is safe. You know, 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:08.520 even if you're talking about completely automating it, and we're 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:10.800 going to talk about some cars where they're taking that approach, 0:01:10.800 --> 0:01:14.280 where they're making it as automated as possible, it's you know, 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:16.399 it's there's a lot of logistics to work through. I mean, 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:19.920 just imagine, like in my neighborhood alone, if I had 0:01:20.080 --> 0:01:23.279 a flying car and it was all automated and everything, 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:26.240 and it could detect other flying cars, I still have 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:30.720 to worry about things like power lines. And we don't 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:33.759 have autonomous cars that go on a two dimensional plane yet. 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:37.959 So I mean adding that third dimension is more complicated 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:41.440 than it probably sounds. So the flying car, I mean, 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:45.520 obviously that's been something in science fiction. What might surprise 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:49.080 you is how old the concept of a flying car is. 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:52.360 It did not take very long after the invention of 0:01:52.360 --> 0:01:56.600 both cars and planes for someone to say, hey, wouldn't 0:01:56.600 --> 0:01:59.160 it be awesome if a car was also a plane. 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:02.600 Uh So back in eighteen eighty five, that's when you 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:06.000 get your first gasoline powered automobile, which was invented by 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:10.680 a fellow named Carl Friedrich Benz and Mercedes Benz. And 0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:12.600 then in nineteen o three we had the first flight 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:15.320 of the Right brothers, right, which, depending upon your view 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:19.720 of history, was the first you know, uh, solid like 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:25.240 heavier than air flight. Uh. There's definitely some debate there, 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:29.359 but generally in the historical ranks, generally speaking, people say 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:32.400 nineteen O three first flight. At any rate, it was 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:34.679 right around that time. So eighteen eighty five was the 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:37.000 first gasoline powered automobile. Keep in mind that there were 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:41.720 other types of automobile, steam powered, electric powered ones, but 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:46.239 gasolene powered started in the late nineteenth century early twentieth century. 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:48.920 You get the Right Brothers, So how long did it 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:51.320 take before someone came up with an idea of making 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:57.799 up car slash plane? Seventeen fourteen years after the Right 0:02:57.880 --> 0:03:03.600 Brothers flew, someone says, clearly, awesome, two things can be combined, right, 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:06.720 this is the chocolate and peanut butter of the technological age. 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:11.880 They must become one. And that person was but Glenn Curtis. 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:15.400 He created the Curtis auto Plane. Then the names of 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:18.680 these things, by the way, are my favorite that they 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:21.040 really only get better. Yeah, it's sort of like what 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:24.119 you encounter when you when you look at steampunk, where 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:28.000 people come up with the most creative uh, goofy goofy, 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:32.680 like like multi collaborate names. So the Curtis auto Plane 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:36.800 wasn't really a true flying car and what we would 0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:39.240 think of today, right, it didn't look like a car 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:42.240 that could suddenly take off and you wouldn't he have 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:44.600 Doc Brown say where we're going, we don't need roads, 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:46.520 and then you have the big Back to the Future 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:49.000 music come up. It's it looked more like a plane 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:54.120 that you could sort of drive around if you needed to. Um. 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:57.160 So it was a plane, a small plane, relatively small 0:03:57.200 --> 0:04:00.440 plane with a forty foot wingspans about twelve point, thank 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:04.320 you very much. And it had a rear mounted four 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:06.760 bladed propellers, so the propellers on the back of the 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:08.360 plane and so have on the front of it, which 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:10.360 is fairly common in a lot of the designs will 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:13.440 be talking about today. Um and uh. But but it 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:16.160 never really flew, now, it just kind of hopped off 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:18.839 the ground a couple of times, never really caught flight. 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:20.560 So if you ever watch any of those kind of 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:23.880 like a toddler going and flying and started jumping really hard. Yeah, 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:26.240 if you look at any of those old timey movies 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:30.720 where people were working on the early early versions of airplanes, 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:33.160 and you see lots of planes that get a little 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:35.320 bit off the ground and then immediately come right back down, 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:38.279 that's kind of what this thing did. It never never 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:40.440 attained true flight, to be fair. At the time, I 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:43.239 think that a lot of especially kind of hobbyist created 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:46.599 planes exactly. We're just you know, we're really just hopping. 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:49.919 So that probably wasn't terrible for no, for a first 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:52.240 attempt at making a car that was also a plane. 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:56.400 Not bad, not great, but not bad. And it would 0:04:56.440 --> 0:05:00.000 take another twenty years before someone would create something similar, 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:03.040 or at least according to all the research I was doing, 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:06.960 there probably were other people, hobbyists, mechanics engineers who are 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:09.640 trying to do the sort of thing, but not all 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:13.000 of their attempts have been recorded for posterity's sake. But 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:17.960 in ninety seven, a Waldo Waterman created the aero bile 0:05:18.320 --> 0:05:23.599 or aerobill or aerobilly anyways, it was. It was a 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:26.960 student baker, which, as we all know from the Muppet 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:32.039 movie is a bear's natural habitat, so student baker not. 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:33.440 If you were to look at a picture of a 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:35.680 student baker, I don't think the first thing that you 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:38.120 would think is that looks like that sucker could fly 0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:43.480 through the air. And yet Waldo Waterman was determined, Yeah, 0:05:43.520 --> 0:05:46.520 this one was that was a three wheeled car, but 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:50.080 the wheels were detachable. Yeah, well had detachable wheels and 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:53.359 a rear mounted propeller, and it never ended up getting 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:57.760 uh sufficient funding. The wings itself were also detachable. That's 0:05:57.800 --> 0:05:59.680 also a very common thing and a lot of these 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:02.800 early designs where you know, you would take all the 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:05.080 parts that you didn't need off for it to be 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:07.800 a car, and then once you got to wherever, them 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:10.360 in a very large trunk and run. Yeah, or a 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:13.360 trailer that you would tow behind the car get to 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:15.880 wherever you're going, Like whatever airstrip you're going to put 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:18.520 your plane together, Yeah, you'd actually have to assembol it 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:20.320 and then it would be a plane. So it was, 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:22.320 which is something that is very worrying for me. I 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:25.200 have to say, guys, I I personally do not have 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:28.520 the kind of engineering background to really feel comfortable flying 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:31.040 in something that I have just built. Can you imagine 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:33.120 looking into the trailer and you're seeing like three or 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:35.320 four just random nuts and bolts in there and think 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:39.279 that's good enough? You know it's because it could be 0:06:39.320 --> 0:06:42.159 like going to Ikea, like you put your furniture together 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:43.800 and you're like, it's always a few spare bits, and 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:46.320 you're like, well, you didn't say that we're spare bits, 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:48.720 But I could have sworn I followed the instructions. Yet 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:52.120 that was sort of what these early flying cars were 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:55.040 like too. So really, you're gonna notice while we talk 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:57.479 about this, so for these early ones, it's going to 0:06:57.520 --> 0:06:59.839 sound more and more like it was a plane that 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:04.160 converted into a vehicle that could travel on Rhods. That's 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:09.400 the case for most of these early ones. Robert Edison 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:13.800 Fulton Jr. A distant relative to another Fulton we talked 0:07:13.800 --> 0:07:17.000 about in how steam engines were Yeah, the steamboat, the 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:20.360 steamboat Fulton. Yeah, so steamboat Fulton was not He was 0:07:20.400 --> 0:07:25.440 not a direct descendant of Robert Fulton, the steamboat engineer. Uh. 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:28.640 Robert Fulton, I believe had one son who never had 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:31.760 any kids, but several daughters. But obviously you wouldn't have 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:34.400 the last name Fulton through that line, So we're talking 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:38.200 like a cousin distantly related in that sense. But still 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:41.800 his dad was a friend to a certain Thomas Edison, 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:47.480 which is why Edison had had the Edison in his name. Um, yeah, 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:50.520 I would guess that if it were Robert Nicola Fulton, 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:54.160 we would all be just fawning over him because of 0:07:54.240 --> 0:08:00.520 Tesla's and I know we both lost some geek cred 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:06.120 there I think anyway, His version was an aluminum body 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:09.880 car that had detachable fabric wings to turn it into 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:13.400 a light plane, and it also had a detachable propeller 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:16.520 that would serve as propulsion. And they built four prototypes 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:21.000 but it never went into production. UM and the following year, 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:27.560 Consolidated Vaulty developed the convert Car, which was a two 0:08:27.560 --> 0:08:30.760 door sedan with detachable airplane unit. So in this case, 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:33.800 it's like an entire kind of airplane kit that you 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:37.040 could fit on top of this car. And they had 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:41.080 some success, at least, well, they had limited early success 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:43.520 with their with their tests. Didn't think, Yeah, yeah, they 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:47.360 had two successful tests. Um, they had two successful tests. 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:49.800 Improved they could they could fly for about an hour 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:53.320 and travel it around forty five seventy two I'm sorry, 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:56.000 not forty five. I could travel a total distance of 0:08:56.040 --> 0:08:59.679 forty five miles or seventy two kilometers on a gallon 0:08:59.720 --> 0:09:02.280 of gas. Us. But it was pretty good. Yeah, so 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:06.839 to flights going pretty slow, but unfortunately the third flight 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:11.520 not so successful. Yeah, and that that was pretty much 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:13.040 the end of the project, right. They were trying to 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:15.600 get some marketing dollars behind it. After the crash that 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:19.360 was a complete disaster for them, and it was it 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:21.800 was scrapped. They decided not to go forward with it. 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:28.079 Molten B. Taylor builds the Arrow Car, which was actually 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:33.040 inspired by Robert Edison Fulton Junior's design. It also had 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:37.040 detachable wings and a detachable tail so they could stash 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:39.800 those in a in a trailer. Yeah, this is one 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:41.280 of those that you would put all those parts in 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:44.640 a trailer, tow it to the airport, then take everything out, 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:47.800 assemble it on the car. And according to the Wall 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:51.240 Street Journal, a practiced owner could assemble the Erow car 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:56.480 from into flying form within ten minutes. Ten minutes to 0:09:56.520 --> 0:09:59.600 turn into an airplane. I can't assemble a microwave dinner 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:04.640 and ten I don't. I certainly anyone who watched me 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:07.680 play Minecraft knows ten minutes is not enough time for 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:12.160 me to assemble anything. This was another tail end propeller. Yeah, 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:14.400 and it looks like a mini car and only six 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:16.320 were ever built. In fact, one of them I think 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:20.080 was current, was on the market recently for just over 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:23.199 like a million dollars or something like. It actually looks 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:27.199 very quaint, like it looks like a quaint little antique 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:30.400 car that for some reason has had an airplane tail 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:33.440 merged onto the end of it and wings that sprouted 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:36.360 out of it. So yeah, but if you, if you, 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:38.760 you could easily imagine removing those and it would look 0:10:38.800 --> 0:10:42.360 like a little Yeah. So this one was more of 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:45.640 a car, although again you could not, you know, effortlessly 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:48.920 convert to flying form, which is really what we're going 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:51.000 for here, right. We want a car that you could 0:10:51.080 --> 0:10:53.240 drive on the streets and then when traffic is getting 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:56.520 really badly you put sug button and it transforms like 0:10:56.559 --> 0:10:58.600 in an anime, and it would be a while and 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:01.040 still would will be a while before we'd see something 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:06.040 like that. Uh So, nineteen sixty, Paul Mahler introduces the 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:08.960 x M two. Now Maller will be well, we'll go 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:13.040 ahead and tell Mahler's story. It's kind of a disappointing story. 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:15.400 But the x M two was the first prototype of 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:19.079 his sky car concept that one would hover, but he 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:22.559 couldn't get it to fly. So he would continue to 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:27.679 to kind of refine this design, and in nine was 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:31.800 the first one. Nine he introduces the M two hundred X, 0:11:32.240 --> 0:11:35.280 which could fly in an altitude of about fifteen meters 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:38.520 or around fifty feet, and then he would later introduce 0:11:38.559 --> 0:11:41.560 the sky car M four hundred, which is a vertical 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:44.880 takeoff and landing aircraft vt o L vertical takeoff or 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:50.480 landing really, which could reach speeds theoretically of four hundred 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:53.760 miles per hour or six hundred forty four kilometers power. 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:57.680 But the cruising speed. Yeah, can you imagine your average 0:11:57.720 --> 0:12:01.320 motorists controlling a vehicle traveling traveling at that speed, I 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:04.760 literally cannot have the cruising speed. Now that was the 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:08.280 top speed. The cruising speed was three miles per Oh, 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:11.040 well that's much better, yeah, or five hundred sixty three 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:15.520 kilometers per hour. Fuel for the vehicle included simple simple 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:21.599 household items yasolene was one diesel okay, alcohol okay, kerosene 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:24.280 and propane all at the same time. Yeah. Well it's 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:27.880 you know, because it was using some pretty powerful sure 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:30.640 which which also yeah, exactly, the average voters just has 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:32.440 those lying around all right, exactly. You know, you can 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:34.880 just go to one filling station and find all of those. 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:37.720 Some filling stations you might, but not many had a 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:41.200 range of about nine hundred miles, which is about hundred 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:44.600 fifty kilometers. Is that the same as it's car mode range. 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:48.000 Uh no, no, it's Kira mode at a mileage of 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:50.960 twenty miles per gallon or thirty two point two kilometers 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:54.120 per gallon. I know, really usually do leaders per kilometer, 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:56.920 but there's only so much conversion I can do. Guys, 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:01.080 I have to apologize for my American nous. But the 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:04.280 initial price for the M four hundred was quoted to 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:09.600 be a millions Macarou's one million bucks. But the promises 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:12.880 of Muller never quite panned out. So in two thousand 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:17.000 three they did a demonstration where the M four hundred hovered, 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:19.520 but it hovered on a tether like it was tethered 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:23.439 to the ground. It did not fly. Um, so it 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:26.920 wasn't really awe inspiring or giving a lot of people 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:29.640 confidence in the project. And in fact, by two thousand 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:33.160 nine they still didn't have a flying car to show off, 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:36.400 and Maller ended up filing for personal protection under Chapter 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:41.120 eleven as in bankruptcy. Turned out apparently the company had 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:45.960 spent something like one hundred million dollars over forty years 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:48.560 trying to get this flying car designed to work, and 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:52.960 it had not happened hundred million bucks. So yeah, it 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:56.560 was definitely a tough, tough story. Now, Maller, while he 0:13:57.040 --> 0:14:01.120 filed for protection under Chapter eleven, the company, Maller International 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:04.120 is still from why I understand, still operating in a 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:07.520 very limited capacity. So the company didn't go away, but 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:11.240 Maller certainly had to look for some financial protection after 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:14.719 after just not being able to turn this around. Now 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:16.840 that leads us up to the last one we're going 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:20.040 to talk about before our break. Uh. It dates back 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:24.040 to two thousand one, the Skywriter X two R. So 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:28.280 this one is designed by Macro Industries Incorporated, and it's 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:31.720 another VT O L type of vehicle, and this one 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:36.480 uses ducted fans as propulsion instead of propellers. So, uh, 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:38.880 it kind of looks like like a casual glance, you 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:41.120 would look and say, oh, those are turbines, but they're 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:45.560 not actually turbines. So it's around casing. On the inside 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:48.880 of this casing is a fan blade and those fans 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:52.360 turn and provide the lift, and you can tilt the 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:55.080 ducts in different directions so that you can do the 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:58.080 vertical takeoff and landing, or tilt them forward so that 0:14:58.120 --> 0:15:01.480 you get that forward propulsion like I like a hover carrier. Yeah, 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:06.680 that's a little hover carrier thing. According to the website, 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:10.479 they were the car would have lots of dynamic routing information, 0:15:10.600 --> 0:15:13.000 so it would allow it to plan out a route 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:15.400 that would keep it clear from the pathway of other 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:20.120 flying car motorists, because they actually said their goal is 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:22.920 to make the flying car reality for the average consumer. 0:15:23.280 --> 0:15:24.920 But of course, you know, to you and I, we 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:27.000 just sit there and think about Atlanta traffic right now. 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:31.000 Just imagine the traffic that's passing past our building right now. 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:33.600 Sometimes you guys can hear it. I know you can 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:37.280 well imagine all of that traffic in the air. That's 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:40.800 kind of terrifying, completely terrifying. Although by two thousand one, 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:43.320 certainly we were starting to get into computer systems that 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:47.360 would at least help you detect some of that little right. 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:49.680 So the idea is that it would have a lot 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:53.320 of automated systems to help prevent collisions, to help you 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:56.640 plan a flight path that wouldn't put you across someone 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:59.680 else's flight path. Uh, you know, And of course as 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:03.360 technology has advanced, we've got better with like collision detection 0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:05.760 and prevention, that kind of stuff. Automated systems that can 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:09.920 take over in case a manual accident is about to happen. 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:12.080 So things have gotten to the point where you could 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:15.800 kind of see a reality here, but it's one that's 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:18.640 kind of early. Yeah yeah, And you know, I I 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:21.720 heard a little bit about this and it sounds like 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:24.720 a kind of solid plan. Where did did this one 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:28.680 actually happen? They said that the first models of this 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:32.000 car would be available within five years the project receiving 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:34.800 adequate funding. As far as they can tell, the project 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:38.720 has yet to receive what they call adequate funding, So uh, 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:41.360 that five years is kind of the perpetual five years 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:44.520 off from now, just like most technological advances are ten 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:50.040 to forty years away, and it's it's always gonna yeah. Now, 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:53.000 maybe they'll end up getting enough funding where they'll become 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:54.880 a real player in the space, but as far as 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:57.560 I can tell, it's kind of one of those vaporware 0:16:57.600 --> 0:17:00.000 type things. And was this another one that was more 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:03.280 more like an aircraft that drives than a Yeah yeah, 0:17:03.440 --> 0:17:05.439 I mean it looks more like a plane than it 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:07.040 does a car. It looks like it looks like a 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:09.480 plane that's small enough when everything folds up for it 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:12.600 to fit into your garage, as opposed to a car 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:15.639 that can turn into a flying machine. It looks like 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:18.120 a plane that can be driven on the roads right, right, 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:19.560 and not the kind of thing that you'd expect to 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:23.720 take out onto the highways and drive around in traffic. Right. Hi, guys, 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:27.680 it's Jonathan from twenty. I apologize for my hovering. That's 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:30.480 a flying card joke. But we need to take a 0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:41.840 quick break, all right, So we're back now. The next 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:45.439 car on our list is one of my favorites because 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:48.560 it's so different from all the other ones we've been 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:50.560 mentioning so far. Like all the ones we've talked about 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:54.720 either had some sort of VT O L system where 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:57.320 they were going to hover and take off and then 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:00.159 fly forward, right, which I'm actually kind of impressed by. 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:01.920 I think that that a vto L would be a 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:05.160 little bit more difficult to engineer, and therefore, yeah, it's 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:07.639 got some challenges, but it would assume you could get 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:09.399 it to work, it would be way easier for your 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:12.200 average driver, right, because it wouldn't mean that you wouldn't 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:15.440 have to go find a long strap in air strips 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:17.399 so that you could get up to enough speed to 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:20.320 get lift and then take off. This would allow you 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:24.080 to convenient Yeah, Yeah, you're at a standstill, you lift up, 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:25.919 you fly off where you want to go. And I 0:18:25.920 --> 0:18:27.720 think you need to be at a standstill with some 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:30.760 you know, like hundred feet of clear space around you 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:34.080 so that you didn't you know, destroy your surrounding. My 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:37.960 precision is amazing. I am fully confident I could take 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:42.520 off from like a crowded parking lot with tiny scratches. Maybe. 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:46.720 So we're talking about now the Parajet skycr and the 0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:50.960 Parajet skycar is one of my favorites. Parajet, you kind 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:53.679 of get the feeling here. There's a para sail or 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:57.680 a parachute that is attached to essentially a dune buggy. 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:00.240 So it looks like something that came out out of 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:03.040 Mad Max, right, like, you know, you could take this 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:06.800 to the Thunderdome in style and um, and it has 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:09.320 this para sale that you can deploy, and on the 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:11.920 very back of the dune buggy is an enormous fan. 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:14.480 So it looks a lot like like like one of 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:18.600 those everglades and boat boats and the kind of archer likes, 0:19:19.200 --> 0:19:21.200 yeah exactly would be one of those. So it's the 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:23.280 stune buggy with the fan on the back. And the 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:26.439 parasale that you deploy, And the way it works is 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:29.159 that you would if you wanted to actually fly, you 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:32.240 would take the parasale part out, lay it behind the car, 0:19:32.920 --> 0:19:36.560 start up your fan, and then start driving and once 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:39.040 you hit about thirty seven miles per hour or sixty 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:42.880 kilometers per hour, you would have enough lift there from 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:45.880 the para sale to lift off the ground and use 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:49.560 the fan to control your pitch and your role. That 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:53.280 sounds so terrifying but wonderful. The videos of this thing 0:19:53.680 --> 0:19:57.080 I absolutely adore. Now, granted again you don't have any wings, 0:19:57.280 --> 0:20:01.120 so it's not like a you know, air lane slash car. 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:03.160 This is a car that has a pair of sale 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:05.680 and a propeller on it. That's pretty much what you're 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:08.600 talking about. And it sounds like it would still count 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:11.480 as a as a light sport vehicle. Yes, yes, you 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:13.840 would have to have sport aircraft. You have to have 0:20:13.880 --> 0:20:17.080 a light sport aircraft piloting license to to be able 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:21.080 to fly this legally. Obviously there in fact, a lot 0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:22.560 of the ones we're going to talk about, the earlier 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:25.719 ones we were talking about, never really got beyond prototype 0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:28.320 or concept, so it was kind of right, right, they 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:30.800 never had to think about this kind of thing. Also, 0:20:30.800 --> 0:20:32.679 I'm sure that the regulations of the f a A 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:35.280 were a lot lighter when the f A didn't exist, 0:20:35.440 --> 0:20:38.160 so there's some probably helped. The next one we'll talk 0:20:38.200 --> 0:20:42.359 about has kind of a very uh lase attitude about 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:45.159 air regulations, but I'll mention that when we get into it. 0:20:45.200 --> 0:20:46.879 So this one, you would actually have to have a 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:50.080 pilot's license to operate in flying mode, but a sport 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:53.800 pilot license, which I believe it's a little different from it. 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:56.639 They are different classes, just like there are different classes 0:20:56.640 --> 0:21:01.240 of motorist licenses, there are different classes of pilot licenses, right, 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:05.119 And since a light sport aircraft is I think you 0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:08.800 have visual site rules on that one, so it's right, 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:10.560 and it's small enough, it can only be a one 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:13.440 or two seater just the pilot and up to one passenger. 0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:17.119 You know, max weight of like six which is one thousand, 0:21:17.200 --> 0:21:20.000 three twenty pounds, and a max speed of a hundred 0:21:20.000 --> 0:21:22.000 and twenty nuts, which is like a hundred and thirty 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:24.879 eight miles per hour or two d and two kilometers 0:21:24.920 --> 0:21:27.600 per hour. So it's going relatively by the speed of 0:21:27.640 --> 0:21:30.960 planes slow, right, and so all you really need is 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:36.000 a driver's license and a this this sport pilot certifications. 0:21:36.440 --> 0:21:39.080 You don't need the full medical thing where a doctor 0:21:39.119 --> 0:21:41.600 approved by the f A comes out and says like, yes, 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:44.199 you are mentally and physically fit to pilot. Right, you 0:21:44.200 --> 0:21:47.200 can be as unstable as you like as long as 0:21:47.240 --> 0:21:49.440 you don't because the damage that you'll create a few 0:21:49.520 --> 0:21:53.280 crash is relatively small. The Parajet skycar, it's top speed 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:55.760 is well within those parameters. Is that a hundred fifteen 0:21:55.760 --> 0:21:58.320 miles per hour or about a hundred eighty five kilometers 0:21:58.320 --> 0:22:01.639 per hour on the ground. In the scare, it's fifty 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:04.359 five miles per hour or nine kilometers per hour. And 0:22:04.520 --> 0:22:06.919 that's not a big surprise. You're flying by para sale. 0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:09.640