RE: It's Time to Start Designing Flying Cars!
Sorry guy, flying saucers are really boring.
The problem with anti-gravity is that gravity doesn't exist.
Well, at least not the Newtonian mass created gravity.
Take two parallel metal plates, charge them to a million volts, and it starts floating.
Take a gyro, spin it up to very high RPMs, in a clockwise direction and it loses weight.
We will start to see something that will be called anti-gravity sleds soon. Basically pallet trucks without the wheels.
The real problem comes about when people actually start reforming families. People all over the world will migrate to places where "they are supposed to be". And, pretty much, they will stop driving around.
Gardens (everyone will have a huge greenhouse) will provide most food, and these "families" will produce something that they can trade. The commercialism, the going out to be entertained, the... everything we use a car for today will just disappear.
And, like i said, flying saucers are boring. It has to be aero-dynamic. It has to have surfaces that are shaped just so. It has to have rotating pieces are very specific locations and configurations.
I do believe we will see hovering cars before they disappear. But, maybe not.
MY flying saucers are not boring! And aerodynamics are so 1950, my flying car will travel between the air molecules, with no regard for shape. As an artist, I can't be bothered with the limitations that you have outlined.
I don't see a problem with people traveling to visit families, but I might be missing something there.
Not travelling, moving and then staying.
It would be like saying the Lakota tribe is going to get back together.
All the people that are reincarnated of the Lakota tribe, are all going to go to the same area.
Cities are going to be ghost towns. Sure there will be heavy industries still in cities, but they will be mostly automated and run by one of these families/groups.
After people are back in their "families" they just won't have this urge to move around.
I understand what you are trying to get at in this flight of fancy that is car design, however, you do not get what i am saying.
Sure, you can have a 1960s car design, but the front hood has to be 62.5° Not 62, not 63, not curved in or out. The design restrictions are from physics. (just an example)
But, physics that most people don't even know exists. Its the difference between have a flying car that flies, and one that is a ground ornament.
I wish you, and all the people who want to draw flying cars to draw to their hearts content.
Makes sense, I'd never really thought about the cities being abandoned, but I know that I would get out of town more if I could fly!
I think I skipped aerodynamics because I can imagine an 'engine' that manipulates time as the craft travels, so that the machine is always 'in front of' the atmosphere, or already there. It would act as a teleporter if the traveler was in a big hurry, instantaneous arrival. Is that possible? I don't know, but time will tell.
It is very much possible. But, they will be built in air tight rooms, usually underground. Very stable.
Riding in a car that used that propulsion would not be enjoyable.
Its like having your body smashed a few times a second.
And even if you could nullify that somehow, the view would be like watching an old television.
But, like i said, there will be hover platforms in the near future, but not sure how propulsion is going to be done. Sure, you could put a big fan on the back.
But, manipulating the car like you have outlined, or inferred, you need to have ... i don't know what they will be called... pods, at least 3, spaced evenly around the driver. And then moving through the air, you have to have known lift in each direction you might travel (including wind /shear) any of which could send you up or down real quick. Which is not good when flying.