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AUGUST 25, 2004
By Olga Kharif A Flying Leap for Cars That's right, efforts to take personal transportation airborne are progressing rapidly. "Air taxis" will come first. Then... George Jetson made it look so easy. The '60s-vintage TV-cartoon character would step from the bedroom of his sky-platform apartment onto a moving walkway to his flying car. And it would whisk him off to work. Back in the real world, even decades later, we can only wish. Hopes for a flying car that eliminate the cursed traffic jam have seemed out of the question. Ever since the Wright Brothers took flight over 100 years ago, scores of enthusiasts have tried to create a flying car -- with disastrous results. In late 1940s, a device resembling an automobile tied under a small plane crashed in its third test. More accidents followed. Skeptics say pigs will fly before cars do. Indeed, in a recent festival called Flugtag, in Portland, Ore., in which teams use homemade, would-be flying apparatuses to get across Willamette River, one group cheerfully went down with a splash in a device called a flying pig. WHOLE NEW INDUSTRY? And yet, a flying car is suddenly less of a pipe dream or the stuff of cartoons. Giants including carmakers Honda (HMC ) and Toyota (TM ) are developing prototypes of small flying devices. Helped by advances in nanotechnology, microelectronics, and robotics, researchers from the likes of NASA, Carnegie Mellon University, and University of Florida are developing new flight-related technologies, designed to make piloting an aircraft easier than driving a car. Even Tim Draper, founder of fabled Silicon Valley venture-capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, which launched the online advertising company Overture.com and others, has recently asked for proposals from outfits developing flying cars. Indeed, while an airborne vehicle may still be 10 to 20 years away, it's already making some VCs see green. In theory, as everyone begins flying to work, these contraptions could dwarf today's $850 billion auto industry. The devices -- ranging from air taxis to personal flying machines -- could breathe life into aerospace companies' growth or create a whole new generation of startups. Best of all, some versions of this vision could start to come true within several years. "ULTIMATE CHALLENGE." Air taxis, which would carry anywhere from four to eight passengers on shorter rides between smaller, now-underused airports, could become available in the next three to four years. Following in the footsteps of several startups, Honda has developed an experimental jet-powered air taxi, now in flight testing. In February, it announced it would manufacture, together with General Electric (GE ), the economical jet engine Honda developed for the plane. With $75 billion in annual sales, the Japanese carmaker could eventually enter the promising air-taxi business as well. With air taxis whizzing overhead, personal flying cars' arrival will only be a matter of time. If Robin Haynes has his way, they might even look a bit like the autos from The Jetsons. Haynes' device, called the Skyblazer, will look like a car -- and actually drive on the road -- as well as fly. With a push of a button, wings will fold out of the car's sides. "It's like the ultimate engineering challenge to me," Haynes says. "And I'd love to have one." His design ready, Haynes is one of the entrepreneurs talking to Draper.
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