Another Pipe Dream Hits the Press

"AeroMobil does reckon they’ll be used regularly by people who travel between 100 and 500 miles a day, as a way to avoid traffic jams and long delays."

Yeah, because there is no other vehicle or aircraft that could be used for such a trip for $1.6 million.

How many of these futuristic concepts have some venture capitalist tried to create, and how many have actually made it into sales and production? Meanwhile traditional aircraft manufacturers continue rolling out a handful of new "1960s" designs a year.
 
". . . people who travel 100-500 miles a day." Most of those people are called truckers, lol. Seriously, what total number of people is that demographic? Now, of those people, how many make the sort of money it would require to buy a $1MM+ commuting vehicle? People who make that kind of money don't generally have a daily commute of 100+ miles. I don't think anyone actually put pen to paper on that part. People who do travel 500 miles several times a week and also make the kind of money where they can buy a 7-figure vehicle, aren't the ones driving said vehicle. They ride in the back of the G5.
 
Cars are great at being cars.

Planes are great at being planes.

Who are these idiots that keep combining the two (with dismal results)?
 
Excitingly, the Slovakian firm says it could be in use in the next five years.

You know those wild and crazy guys from Slovakia!

th
 
These things just get sillier and sillier with each iteration.
 
PaulS said:
Lol, taxi drivers flying.... think about that.
Click to expand...

Taxi driver vs ATP. Yellow Cab vs Major Airline. Gee, which career would I choose? OTOH, Uber with my $1.6 Mill fliver?

Cheers
 
So let's do the math on this one. I don't fit the demographic, but I could, if I wanted to work in NYC and somebody were willing to pay me enough to do it. That would be about a 130 mile drive from my house. Right at the bottom end of their target buyer's "commute".

The way I'd normally do this, is take a 15 minute drive to the Amtrak station just outside Albany. The train takes about 2.5 hours, and costs about $50, one way, and puts me right in the middle of NYC. Then I'll take a cab, subway, or ubar to wherever I want to be, say $20 for an uber and 20 minutes. So about $80 and a bit over 3 hours, and I can do some work on the train, even with their crappy wifi.

But instead, I'm going to fly. So it's 20 minutes to South Albany airport, and then how long to get a gate open so I can fly out of there? Or...more fun, trying to make that happen at Albany International. Anyway, then I fly down the Hudson River corridor, VFR, to Linden, NJ. Ok, that saves me some time, that might only take an hour. Do I really want to fly 1000' off the river for my commute every day? Now I'm on the wrong side of the river, but not a big deal, I'll just drive over the bridge to NYC....and that takes another hour. Now, where do I park the car again? Ok, find a garage, and park. That's $50. Now I can do the same uber thing to get where I really need to be, which is another $20 and 20. So my math says that's about 2.5 hours and about $270, if the aircraft costs $200/hr to run. One way.

Now, on the days where the weather is crappy, I'm going to have to drive down. And that makes it a 3.5-4 hour trip, counting parking time. Here, half the time or more, I'd be driving. Some days, if lucky, I'd have a 5 hour total commute instead of 6, for over $500 instead of around $160. And sometimes, it would be 8 hours.

There are people who have $$ and commute between NYC and Albany. The way they do it is either train, or hired car, where either way they can work or sleep during the commute. The only exception I can think of used to sometimes use a helicopter, but he was recently forced to resign. The market for this thing is people who can afford crazy expensive toys.
 
So they created an air taxi service that is more expensive and gives you a car on the other end that you somehow wouldn’t have in a major city once you got there? Basically you have one taxi vehicle instead of 2 now? That really had to take some imagination.
 
How about they get a spellchecker that works before we start having autonomous flying taxis.
 
Another BD5. 200 mph on 55 hp or something it was. Physics still rules.
 
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