DailyDirt: When Cars Fly!

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Visions of the future usually seem to include flying cars filling the sky, but given the number of terrestrial car accidents, it doesn't seem like such a great idea just yet. Still, plenty of folks are working on various kinds of personal aircrafts that could turn into somewhat practical flying cars.

• Burt Rutan has designed a flying hybrid car that can fit into a standard one-car garage. Interestingly, this Model 367 BiPod isn't quite as far along in development as SpaceShipOne. [url]
• The AirMule is a vertical take-off-and-land vehicle that doesn't look ready to fly anywhere near residential areas yet. Maybe that's why its designers suggest using it for pumping heavy water into damaged nuclear reactors? [url]
• The European Union is looking into Personal Aerial Vehicles (PAVs) with a project called myCopter. It sounds strange that <60 mile flying trips could be more efficient than driving a car... [url]
• To discover more cool sites about aviation, check out what's currently flying around StumbleUpon. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: flying cars, future, mycopter, personal aerial vehicles, spaceshipone

DailyDirt: I'm Leavin' On A Space Plane, Don't Know When I'll Be Back Again....

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

NASA's space shuttle program is winding down, but it seems like there's some growing interest in going to space. SpaceShipOne won the $10 million Ansari X Prize in 2004, and even though it only touches the edge of space, it's still a pretty remarkable achievement. But it's about 6 years later, and trips to space aren't exactly tickets you can buy on Orbitz (or Priceline or Expedia, etc). Here are a few interesting links on space travel and traveling in the future (not *to* the future).

• According to WikiLeaks, Turkey apparently tried to get a Turkish astronaut on the space shuttle -- in exchange for buying some Boeing planes. Is having a national astronaut really that prestigious? International politics shouldn't be like winning Civ and getting to Alpha Centauri.... [url]
• Orbital Sciences Corp has proposed a space plane to replace NASA's shuttle for ferrying people and stuff to the ISS. Space plane versus capsule designs... I'd bet the capsules will win, but there's no denying the coolness factor of a winged spaceship. [url]
• In 2013, Russia is going to start selling space tourism tickets again. A 10-day trip to space for over $35M... "We could buy our own ship for that! But who's gonna fly it kid... you?" [url]
• NASA is also looking at some regular plane designs to make flying more efficient in 2025. Space is probably over-rated, anyway. [url]

Filed Under: iss, nasa, space shuttle, spaceshipone
Companies: boeing, orbital sciences corporation