Flying Cars! It's Happening

This is just too exciting.

Some readers may recall that our staff has, on several occasions, asked the question: It’s the twenty-first century, where are our flying cars? We asked it back in May/June 2008 when we ran our “futureshock” cover and again in March 2009 when we asked on our cover, “is a green age coming?”

It’s 2010 and we may finally have our flying car–or at least a flying vehicle. I was about to delete a release from Samson Motors Inc. about Charlie Johnson’s appointment to the advisory board when I read this sentence: Samson Motors is the developer of the Switchblade Multi-Mode Vehicle, a vehicle capable of driving on roads then converting into a plane, targeted for first flight later this year.

It’s called the “flying motorcycle.” And I love it.

In all seriousness, if this product actually made it to market, what would that mean for personal vehicle owners? Are we looking at a Jetson’s-style future where most everyone jets to work? Doubtful. What, then, is the point of developing this tech?

In an interview with Daily Planet, Samson Motors CEO, Sam Bousfield, said he does want to bring flight to the masses. He said the hardest part is going to be convincing the average person that he or she can be a pilot. To operate the Switchblade, drivers would need both a motorcycle and pilot’s license. Order it, and it shows up at your door as a kit you assemble yourself for US$85,000.

Right now, this is an expensive toy at best. But, we did ask for it, and Samson delivered. Flying cars: how very twenty-first century.