The concept of a mass produced flying car has been around forever. Henry Ford himself played around with idea, and by 1940 was convinced a 'combination airplane and motorcar is coming'. The obvious advantages though - and no little investment over the years - has not resulted in anything you'd call market-ready. The technical hurdles, after all, are considerable, and even if you overcome them (in a way which doesn't make your 'car' look like a plane with the wings folded up) you're still left with the problem of pilot licences - and most people's lack of one.
That's where the Flyer comes in. Part funded by Larry Page (he of Google-founding fame) and led by Sebastian Thrun (a former Google VP) the 'personal flying vehicle' is less about getting people from A to B and more about just getting them in the air without any requirement for previous training. If the solution looks remarkably like an oversized drone, then that's no coincidence: it's powered by ten all-electric lift fans in a similar sort of configuration, will stay in the air for up to 20mins thanks to onboard batteries, and the business of actually staying in the air is mostly left to a computer.
This leaves the solo 'pilot' with the job of, well, larking about mostly. Apparently you get a joystick and slider to control speed, which means you just nudge it in the direction you want to go. The idea, of course, is that it all feels as intuitive as riding a bike, and can therefore be picked up by anyone within a matter of minutes. If you're thinking, "well, okay, this is just an airborne jet ski for extraordinarily rich people to mess about in from the back of a private yacht", then, for now at least, you're probably on the right on the money. By fitting into the FAA's ultralight category, the Flyer is currently restricted to uncontrolled airspace so Kitty Hawk has designed the vehicle to fly over water (those are pontoons underneath).
Rest assured though, the team's ambition is not limited to merely letting autocrats fly around at 20mph, 10ft from the surf. When he worked at Google, Thrun headed the self-driving car team so it's safe to say that personal transportation is a preoccupation. And while he has previously decreed flying cars a 'distant vision', the Kitty Hawk website invites us to 'take part in our journey - from the breathtaking freedom of flight, to a world free from traffic' - so it's fair to say where the firm ultimately sees itself heading. Of course, if you don't want to wait around to see what your great grandchildren whizz about in (and you've got a lake in the back garden), you can apparently pre-order a Flyer right now...
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