Recommended Weekend Browsing
Check out FutureCars.com. They provide a fairly comprehensive overview of future automobile technologies with an emphasis on future fuels. Plus, they provide a good run-down on the various ways that the flying car scenario might be realized, including this summary of the challenges that need to be overcome:
A flying car should:
be able to utilize the current infrastructures for both cars and airplanes
feature a flight system that does not require the owner to have a pilot’s license
meet all FAA regulations
be fuel efficient and economically viable for the average car buyer
be powered by renewable fuels
That's a pretty good summary. I would venture to guess that we will solve our energy problems and have some fairly sophisticated AI in place before we see a true flying car. A machine that flies but that requires no more highly developed skills than those required to operate an automboile is going to have to be highly automated.
Comments
The man Somender Singh has found that with a small turbulence inducing groove in any old car engine, the power and efficiency can be simultaneously improved.
With all of this talk about Hydrogen fuel cars, everyone seems to be brainwashed. What in the world are we going to do about the waste and inefficiency of millions of cars on the road TODAY ?
Somender has found a way to improve efficiency of ANY car or truck engine, so why isn't the world beating a path to his door?
Mostly, it seems, because everyone is sitting around saying "Why isn't the world beating a path to his door?" ! It isn't sexy, but the fact is that a small modification can give you about 25% better fuel efficiency and this is a consistent finding among other things like lower engine temp and cleaner oil.
How many million gallons of old petroleum gets dumped during an oil change?
So we need to get off the Hydrogen "Kool Aid" and fix what we've got right here, right now. Even after ten years when the Hydrogen fuel pump arrives, how many people in a depressed economy will be able to afford such a luxury? No, they will keep their old gasoline car that nobody paid attention to.. there is Somender, waiting for us all to wake up.
Posted by: omkar | September 6, 2008 08:32 AM
The bigger problem with drinking th eH kool aid is that why add the energetic step of isolating th ehydrogen and then transporting the hydrogen to the engine. Why not just use the energy to isolate the H in the first place to move the vehicle?
Posted by: MDarling | September 9, 2008 10:00 AM