Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
There may be plenty of idiots on the road, but is putting them in the skies taking it,
quite literally, to the next dimension? For Dr. Heinrich H. B�lthoff -- one of the
leading researchers on the 'MyCopter' project -- it's a serious question.
Making an idiot-proof flying car that anyone can pilot has involved years of painstaking
research and may be the secret to the long-held dream of firing up the rotors, levitating
and simply flying out of the bumper-to-bumper grind.
Now the European Union wants to make the dream a reality, researching the feasibility of
small commuter air vehicles to ease the world's traffic congestion.
"It's been a dream of mine since I read it in science fiction books and in the movies
as a kid, but science fiction is becoming the reality these days," says Dr. B�lthoff,
director of perception, cognition and action at the Max Planck Institute in T�bingen,
Germany. First flying car to go on sale in 2015 Driverless
cars could let you sleep Under the four-year project, the EU has drawn
together six institutes from across Europe to look at the problems associated with commuting
in personal aviation vehicles (PAVs). At the center of the research is a focus, not so
much on building the vehicle, but on all the issues and challenges surrounding commuter
aviation. In the case of his institute, it's how to
make the machine accessible to ordinary drivers.