Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Flying car

The folks at Kansas University are developing an aircar that you drive on the streets and right out ontoo a runway.  After a brief conversion, you then take off and fly like an airplane.

AircarHow would you like to hop in your four-person AirCar, drive to the airport, take off, land and drive to Grandma’s in the same vehicle?

That’s what some forward-thinking industrial design students at the University of Kansas had in mind when they designed a Jetsons/James Bond-like flying car.

Plans for the car were unveiled Thursday at the university’s Center for Design in Lawrence.

The sleek, metallic blue vehicle would have retractable wings, a chassis on hydraulics or air lifts, and wheels that unfold when the aircraft becomes a land cruiser.

The first model should be available in a year or two.  Initial cost would be around $200,000, but should come down in price after a while.

More on this story here.   There is a pretty neat animation of how it works here.

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