Flying Car Proposals Sought by Pentagon

Flying Car Proposals Sought by Pentagon
Pentagon Wants to Develop a Flying Car Prototype Within the Next Four Years


Hoping to bridge the gap between SUVs and helicopters, the military's advanced research projects agency is seeking proposals for flying cars.

The idea is to give troops more flexibility to reach targeted areas -- however remote -- and to be able to hightail it out of untenable situations.

"A future platoon could fly into a specific location and provide direct boots-on-ground seizure of a critical location," the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency wrote in briefing materials about the project, known as Transformer, or TX. "If they encounter overwhelming enemy forces, casualties or new orders, they can immediately extract to a new location."


DARPA, which hopes to have a prototype in four years, is looking for a four-passenger vehicle which can transform in about a minute from a Humvee-type land rover to an aircraft that can take off and land vertically like a helicopter. The vehicle should be able to drive and/or fly 250 nautical miles on a single tank of gas.

In addition to carrying four people (average weight 180 pounds each), the TX should be able to tote 350 pounds of cargo.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/flying-car-proposals-sought-pentagon/story?id=10521080

And heaven help us if this ever becomes some sort of civilian form of transport.

I've been waiting for my flying car for a long time! :grr:

It would only work if it was automated and the passengers had no control over it. Otherwise, expect falling debris every day.

the "father of the flying car" and some military installation will have a road named after him...


mark

this is a bad idea. . . but

The flying car is one invention that I've always longed for, and if it takes the military to develop it, so be it. The new technologies that will come of it will benefit us in good time.