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NASA's Highway in the Sky - Big jets and HSR obsolete?
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Sigh. <br /> <br />I have spend several hours updating myself on the Moller Skycars and find myself thinking that some of my previous postings have already been taken into account by the Moller Folks. <br /> <br />They did not provide too much of the flight regime for this vehicle but if the vehicle is properly configured, I feel like I could place that thing into my land which is two acres in size barring one particular telephone pole pathway which would probably have to be moved for true safety. <br /> <br />The cost on this vehicle shows near 1 mil down to 500,000 early adopters will be paying a pretty penny for these things. <br /> <br />If I could fit a 53 foot trailer at night into very tight spots where inches do matter I dont see why a properly trained and licensed operator can drive/fly one of these skycars in a safe manner. <br /> <br />I think I would seriously support this technology once the price comes down quite a bit. Just thinking of unfettered access via low level flight bypassing jammed interstates during a morning commute is really attractive. <br /> <br />If I read the flight regime correctly a one way 50 mile commute to work probably will take less than 15 minutes (250 KIAs works out to 0.2 of flight time) and use roughly the same amount of gas and free up at least an hour of each day for more productive needs and less time crunch getting ready for work. <br /> <br />I wonder if the present highway system can have sensors installed and a network built to maintain a "Lane" that is about 1 mile wide, 500 feet in height and perhaps set 1000 feet into the sky? So you would have the ground cars and trucks and possibly sky ways with ready access to landing areas. <br /> <br />I note that these cars run on regular gas, what would it take to manuver one of these things into a actual operating gas station for a fillup? What do you do with the static that builds up when you transfer fuel between dispenser and vehicle? Do you ground at the handle of the gas pump and inlet cap and hope for the best? Or do you need to ground the aircraft to the concrete? <br /> <br />Assuming a segment of the population is licensed to fly these things. How do we enforce FAA laws and I hate to say this... cops to go after law breakers? <br /> <br />FInally, suppose Little Rock has a percentage of these sky cars operating between Memphis, Kansas City, Dallas, Shreveport, St Louis. What happens to the smaller airlines that serves these cities when the ridership drops? <br /> <br />There will always be big jets. Widebodies and shorter range commuters such as the 737 will continue to fly. There are new designs that supposedly ride the sonic wave at near speed of sound to cut flight times for really long flights. <br /> <br />Residential Subdivisions present an interesting problem. Scenario. 6 am in the morning, 60 skycars rise within minutes of each other out of 120 homes in a very tight space seeking thier seperate ways to work. Does there have any collision avoidiance or other technology to stop fender benders? (Or fan benders? =)
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