Jalopnik: flying car

Russian Aerocar Promises All Purpose Travel - New Cold War

Ben Wojdyla — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:45:00 EDT

With the development of the Russian-made Aerocar, it has become radically evident that the United States is now embroiled in the midst of a flying car technology race. While we have the sleek and the supposedly in-production Moller M200G, it's only limited to flying at heights of only 10 feet. The Russians have developed a version of an ultralight which can fly at up to 160 KPH and reach heights of 4,000 meters while on road it can top out at 80 KPH. Certainly it's not as elegant a solution, but they're working on a new and improved version which will fly at speeds of 450 KPH and travel on land at 100 KPH. You heard it here first, watch out for a flying Vlad buzz bombing a quiet American town near you! [RussiaToday]

The Flight of Pegasus: The AVE Mizar

Davey G. Johnson — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 12:30:00 EST

Allegedly obsessed with flying cars, it seems like our latest obsession happens to be with turbocharged Pinto motors. So what if an ex-Northrop engineer grafted the wings and ass end of a Cessna Skymaster to a Ford Pinto and had the prototype painted by a hot van artist? Not 1973 enough for you yet? What if we told you that Southern California Ford megadealer Galpin was involved as the distributor? And that the project was on track until the wing assembly somehow came apart and sent inventor Henry Smolinski and pilot Harold Blake to their deaths. The Mizar, scheduled to go into production in 1974, never flew again. Needless to say, the incident was a major blow for detachable-wing flying-car technology. – Davey G. Johnson

AVE Mizar [Wikipedia]

Assembly Line Set to Churn Out F-35 Fighters

Mike Bumbeck — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 17:15:06 EST

Up until now supersonic jet fighters have been built like hot rods or race cars. Meticulously, and one at a time. No more. Due to overwhelming demand and a desire to cut production costs of the new F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter, Northrop has constructed a top sekrit moving assembly line in Palmdale, CA. They plan to use the facility to spit out jet fighters like rental fleet Mercury Sables. If Northrop can tool up to make a heap of fighters on-the-cheap in Palmdale, then perhaps former Boeing and now Ford man Alan Mulally can incorporate unused Boeing X-32 joint strike fighter VTOL technology into the next generation up-and-away edition flying Mustang. – Mike Bumbeck

A Fighter On the Line [Los Angeles Times]

Spills! No Thrills: Why LA Hates Driving

Mike Bumbeck — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 13:55:35 EST

The freeway was to be the stuff of miracles back in the days of modernism and promise of the future. Whisking along in our turbine-powered bubble top cars we were to travel at speeds exceeding 100 mph while eating a sangwich. Mention the word freeway to an Angeleno these days and they'll explain why they've been living off hot dogs from the corner 7-11 instead of whisking across down to enjoy something more delicious. Just this morning a gasoline truck flipped over on "the" 134 freeway near Burbank. Add some rain and about six months of dried rubber and oil on the road and you have a quick and soupy recipe for what is a slightly more craptastic than normal driving experience here in LA. – Mike Bumbeck

[via Sigalert]

SUPER FUTURE MODERN AMUSEMENT! 1968 Datsun Bluebird

Mike Bumbeck — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 14:00:00 EST

If the scientific windbags of our youth were actually worth their salt we were all by now supposed to be flying our cars, taking weekends on the moon, and not even having to toil away eighty-plus-hours-a-week to pay the bills. Technology was the answer, and was supposed to be doing the work for us. All this talk was evidently a intellectual farce of boozy cocktail party banter. The Jalopnik helper robot is perpetually broken. Datsun, however, had a car ready for the supersonic future back in 1968. This future was called Bluebird. – Mike Bumbeck

Related:
Moller Skycar on eBay! [internal]