Flying Car: Difference between revisions

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[[File:~~flying_car~~.jpg|frame]]

[[File:flying car.jpg|frame]]

{{quote|"''Roads? Where we're going we don't need -- roads.''"|'''Doc Brown''', ''[[Back to The Future]]''}}

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** Apparently the writers really liked this idea, because it was one of the few things from the original script of the first movie to survive.

* ''[[The Fifth Element]]'' had lots of these, of course.

* In ''[[The Last Starfighter]]'', Centauri's [[Cool Car]] is both a [[Flying Car]] and a starship.

* In ''[[The Last Starfighter]]'', Centauri's [[Cool Car]] is both a Flying Car and a starship.

* Luke's speeder in ''[[Star Wars]]'' was only ever a few inches off the ground, but it did fly, technically...

** Also, the Coruscant speeder chase in ''Attack of the Clones''. Coruscant seems practically on the verge of having [[Flying Car]] traffic jams...

** Also, the Coruscant speeder chase in ''Attack of the Clones''. Coruscant seems practically on the verge of having Flying Car traffic jams...

** All sorts of military and civilian [[Anti Gravity|repulsorlift]] vehicles abound in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]. Speeder bikes (from Episode VI), airspeeders, hovertrucks, pod racers, swoops...

* Lady Penelope's pink Ford limousine in the live action ''[[Thunderbirds]]'' movie.

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== Tabletop Games ==

* ''[[Shadowrun]]'' has a selection of hovercars in addition to normal cars, helicopters, and airplanes. The really fun thing is that if you have a reasonable DM, it is possible to afford a hovercar at character creation (it will eat up around half your cash, though)

* ''[[Teenagers From Outer Space]]'' has spacesters: look like a car, move like a flying saucer. No teenager can afford to buy ~~one -- but~~ a clever human/alien pair can ''build'' one by, yes, cannibalizing parts from a car and a flying saucer.

* ''[[Teenagers From Outer Space]]'' has spacesters: look like a car, move like a flying saucer. No teenager can afford to buy one—but a clever human/alien pair can ''build'' one by, yes, cannibalizing parts from a car and a flying saucer.

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* Dribble and Spitz's taxi in the ''[[Wario Ware]]'' series is capable of flight and space travel.

* ''[[Beam Breakers]]'' was a computer game in which you drove antigravity cars in a [[Fifth Element]]-esque city. It was also awesome...

* The Pheonix Hovercar in ''[[X-COM]]: Apocalypse''. Together with the [[Cool Bike|Hoverbikes]], they're excellent vehicles for [[Zerg Rush~~|Zerg Rushing~~]] [[Flying Saucer~~|Flying Saucers~~]] in the early and mid game.

* The Pheonix Hovercar in ''[[X-COM]]: Apocalypse''. Together with the [[Cool Bike|Hoverbikes]], they're excellent vehicles for [[Zerg Rush]]ing [[Flying Saucer]]s in the early and mid game.

* Some of the ''[[Choro Q]]'' games have [[Jet Pack|jet packs]] and wings as add-ons which allow your car to fly.

* Common in ''[[Mass Effect]]'', due to the ubiquity of Element Zero-based technology. In the "Lair of the Shadow Broker" DLC for ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', you even get to pilot one in a scene reminiscent of ''[[Attack of the Clones]]''.

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* ''Boeing'' sunk six million dollars into something called the "Sky Commuter" program in the 1980s. [http://boingboing.net/2008/01/12/sky-commuter-vehicle.html This prototype], which was apparently sold on Ebay in 2008, is all that remains. It looks beautiful, and very much like a proper science fiction flying car, but it seems it did not fly particularly well.

* [http://www.terrafugia.com/ This lot] look like they might be close to actually selling [[Transformers|transforming]] flying cars commercially. Hope you have $200,000 on you, though.

** This highlights an interesting, if subtle, distinction between "flying cars" and "road-able aircraft", which is a term you'll often read if studying this topic. The Terrafugia "''Transition''" is an ''airplane'' that happens to have compact, folding wings and the ability to drive on regular roads. You still need to take off and land at an airport, and fly the vehicle like any small ~~plane -- but~~ you can ''drive it home'' from the airstrip after you land, too, as if it were a car. (You can also drive ''instead'' of flying if weather conditions are bad). Not quite as glamorous as a full flying car might be -- [[Boring but Practical|but in the end, far more practical.]]

** This highlights an interesting, if subtle, distinction between "flying cars" and "road-able aircraft", which is a term you'll often read if studying this topic. The Terrafugia "''Transition''" is an ''airplane'' that happens to have compact, folding wings and the ability to drive on regular roads. You still need to take off and land at an airport, and fly the vehicle like any small plane—but you can ''drive it home'' from the airstrip after you land, too, as if it were a car. (You can also drive ''instead'' of flying if weather conditions are bad). Not quite as glamorous as a full flying car might be -- [[Boring but Practical|but in the end, far more practical.]]

* While other flying car designs are more like "airplanes you can drive on the road", [http://www.eaavideo.org/video.aspx?v=635469588001 this I-TEC design] is more like "a car that can also fly". It only gets 40 MPH in the air, but it's pretty speedy on the road (see around 2:50 in the video), and the company seems to have serious plans for what they want to do with it.

* The [[wikipedia:Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar|Avrocar]].