No flying cars in 2015, but auto king in Saskatoon

ANALYSIS

Imagine Saskatoon with a lot fewer vehicles.

Coun. Pat Lorje suggested this week the city consider a future where fewer people will feel compelled to own their own car or truck.

"By 2030, your automobile will be your smartphone," Lorje said at Monday's council meeting.

By then, some expect ride-sharing programs like Uber to take a bite out of vehicle ownership. And we waited until 2015 to get the flying cars from Back to the Future to no avail.

But what will Saskatoon city council do in a Utopian future with far fewer automobiles? Ponder the bigger philosophical questions, presumably.

Monday's meeting, as with most gatherings at city hall, was almost totally consumed by vehicle traffic. And if it's not traffic, it's parking. All revolving around the almighty car.

That's no surprise in a city where registered vehicles outnumber people 251,196 to 244,526, according to recent SGI numbers.

A city where considerations to accommodate the car are greatly diminished seems far in the distance.

In the meantime, Monday's latest council meeting left Ward 6 Coun. Charlie Clark "flabbergasted" after council voted 6-5 to reopen a road council had decided to close four months earlier.

Council voted 8-2 in May to close the west end of Ninth Street East in Nutana in response to a neighbourhood traffic review. Five councillors switched sides on the issue when asked to vote again on Monday.

Councillors Eric Olauson, Tiffany Paulsen, Randy Donauer and Troy Davies voted to reopen the street so motorists can access the Idylwyld Drive freeway via Lorne Avenue after voting to close it four months earlier.

Coun. Ann Iwanchuk switched the other way. She, along with Mayor Don Atchison, voted to keep the street open in May, but she wanted to respect the traffic review process on Monday. Lorje missed the vote in May, but voted to reopen Ninth on Monday.

Clark said he has been left with a "mess" in his ward. The temporary barricade will soon be removed by city crews. The roundabout that had been in place for about two years at McPherson Avenue and Ninth was taken down Oct. 2 when the barricade was installed.

Now what? An exasperated Clark suggested on Twitter Wednesday night that those who want a new solution to Ninth Street traffic contact Olauson, who put forth the motion to reverse the closure.

Prior to the Ninth Street flip-flop, council had discussed a new plan to improve 33rd Street.

A couple of speakers and three councillors — including Lorje and Davies — spoke against increased traffic on 33rd, saying they do not want to see the roadway become another 22nd Street.

Concern about 33rd becoming a so-called major arterial roadway has started to rise in response to the city's growth plan to accommodate half a million people.

That plan includes a new bridge across the South Saskatchewan River that would connect 33rd to lands east of the University of Saskatchewan that are slated to be developed over the next few decades.

Even though the bridge could be more than a generation away from becoming a reality, it's already causing people to fret. About increased traffic.

'Over-my-dead-body' bridge

Ward 1 Coun. Darren Hill has called the proposed span the "over-my-dead-body" bridge so concerned is he over the possible impact of more vehicles on residential neighbourhoods in his ward.

Farther down 33rd, the city's newest business improvement district could be threatened by higher traffic volume, a spokesman warned council.

Lorje suggested a new bridge would be a waste of money and represents old-fashioned thinking where cities are designed to accommodate the car. The bridge is seen as necessary to introduce Saskatoon's proposed bus rapid transit (BRT) system.

The BRT would claim two dedicated lanes on the University Bridge, according to current plans, meaning another bridge would be needed. No timetable has been set for the BRT and similar systems in other cities in Canada have cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Lorje suggested combining BRT lanes with carpool lanes as a way to remove the necessity for another bridge. Calgary's Centre Street includes a rush-hour high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane that also accommodates buses. Check it out here:

http://www.calgary.ca/Transportation/Roads/Pages/Traffic/Traffic-management/HOV-lanes/Centre-Street-HOV-lane.aspx

As an aside, Atchison pitched carpooling as a way to weather the absence of buses a year ago after council voted to lock out transit employees.

Maybe residents are still opting to carpool because it does not appear transit ridership has recovered.

The City of Saskatoon wants 20 per cent of residents to walk, cycle or take the bus to work. That would nearly double the share that did so in 2011.

Perhaps city hall wants fewer vehicles just to save on money, effort and time spent on council's agendas, such as  Monday's 702-page monster.

Lorje said she got the HOV lane idea from an International Downtown Association conference in San Francisco this fall that was also attended by a few other Saskatoon councillors.

It's valuable that city council understands where urban planning is headed. But in Saskatoon it seems like the only way to get to this idyllic urban design destination is by car.

With 2016's municipal elections less than a year away, anyone thinking of a run should know that those who do not want to spend a lot of time talking about cars, traffic and parking need not apply.

ptank@thestarphoenix.com

twitter.com/thinktankSK

Source: No flying cars in 2015, but auto king in Saskatoon

Lexus unveils hydrogen-powered sports car LF-FC at Tokyo Motor Show

Philip King says this year's Tokyo Motor Show is bigger and better, with more floor space to show off quirky and serious cars.

This is the future ... Lexus says hydrogen fuel cells are the future of motoring. Picture: Richard Blackburn

FORGET electric cars, this thing is the bomb.

We may not have got the flying cars promised by Back to the Future, but Lexus has given drivers a glimpse of the future by unveiling a hydrogen-powered sports car with a hologram on the dash.

The sleek-lined four-door coupe concept car, unveiled at the Tokyo Motor Show today, sends a clear message that hydrogen-powered cars are the long term future of motoring.

"The future has suddenly got very close," Lexus Australia boss Sean Hanley says.

He says the car will be on the road in the next five to ten years.

"What we dreamt about ten years ago is now our probable future," he says.

Mass excitement ... the Lexus concept car has pulled focus at the Tokyo Motor Show. Picture: Richard BlackburnSource:Supplied

Lexus is the luxury arm of the world's biggest car company, Toyota, the brand that brought the world hybrid technology in 1997. Hydrogen cars have an advantage over electric cars because they have the same range as a petrol car and can be refilled in minutes, where EVs take hours to charge.

Hanley says hybrid vehicles are only stepping stones to fuel cells.

"Hybrid was never the end game of cleaner technology," he says.

The concept car, dubbed LF-FC (Lexus future fuel cell) comes on the back of the recent launch of a production fuel-cell car by parent company Toyota. Toyota and Honda also showed off fuel-cell cars at the show.

The LF-FC concept uses a high-output fuel cell to drive the rear wheels and also sends power to two in-wheel motors in the front. Lexus says the system will give drivers better control with drive at all four wheels. Lexus has not released any performance figures for the car, but the fact that it is a top-end sports coupe suggests it will be comparable with their current top of the line V8s.

The Toyota FCV Plus, Toyota's latest fuel cell concept vehicle.Source:Supplied

It also has the latest hi-tech gadgets in the cabin. The driver can operate controls by making hand gestures in front of a hologram on the centre console.

Fuel cell cars still face big obstacles, not least the enormous task of setting up a hydrogen refuelling infrastructure to replace petrol stations. Australia has only one hydrogen car refuelling station in the entire country, and it is owned by rival Hyundai.

But many car companies believe it is the ultimate replacement for petrol cars, as fuel-cells have longer range than electric cars and can be filled up in minutes, compared with the hours it takes to recharge an electric battery.

Hanley says the company won't invest directly in hydrogen infrastructure but is looking to partner with other companies to bring the technology to Australia.

The Lexus was one of the stars of a Tokyo Motor Show where sports cars were the main event. Toyota unveiled a concept that is likely to become the world's most affordable sports car, while Mazda resurrected the rotary engine with a car that is a spiritual successor to the RX7. Honda also displayed the production version of its hybrid supercar, the reborn NSX.

Source: Lexus unveils hydrogen-powered sports car LF-FC at Tokyo Motor Show

Where are the hover boards and flying cars?

If you are a fan of the "Back to the Future" movies like I am, then you already know this past Wednesday was a big day.

The date on the calendar was Oct. 21, 2015, which is very significant to the film franchise that originally hit the big screens back in the 1980s.

In Back to the Future Part II, the characters Dr. Emmett Brown, or "Doc," Marty McFly and Marty's girlfriend, Jennifer, leave their home in the year 1985 and travel into the future all the way to Oct. 21, 2015.

They travel to that particular day because Marty and Jennifer's future kids end up getting in trouble with the law, so they travel to the future in hopes of stopping the crimes from happening.

So Back to the Future fans celebrated this past Wednesday because we finally made it to the "future" in the movies.

My wife and I went to the Tri-County Cineplex here in Corbin that evening because they played the entire movie trilogy in one of their theaters. It was just $3 to watch all of them, and was really a lot of fun. I will even admit I got goosebumps when the crowd in the theater cheered as Doc set the time machine for Oct. 21, 2015.

A big theme of that movie though is how much things had changed and how much technology had advanced from 1985 to 2015.

In addition to cars that drive on roads, they also had flying cars in the year 2015.

Instead of the skateboards that Marty rode in 1985, they had hover boards in the future.

If you happen to get rained on, they had clothes that dried off in an instant with the pull of a switch. And instead of having to deal with the hassles of lacing up shoes, the movie version of 2015 had shoes that actually laced themselves.

There were also some pop culture references in the movie when they traveled to 2015.

The movie "Jaws 19" had just been released in theaters, and the Chicago Cubs finally won the World Series.

If you were on social media, or watched certain TV shows this past Wednesday though, you likely heard or read a lot of jokes about how different the year 2015 is in the movie from the year 2015 in real life.

Of course we don't have flying cars or hover boards yet. We still have to dry our clothes in a dryer, and we still have to lace our own shoes. The Jaws movies ended with Part 3 so we never got around to Part 19. And to beat it all, the real-life Cubs actually got eliminated from the playoffs on the day they won the World Series in the movie.

There are some similarities between our 2015 and the movie's though.

We can make video phone calls with our smart phones, or through computer programs like Skype.

And finger print technology is slowly being used more and more by businesses and consumers. Plus, I've heard rumors that Nike may soon release a shoe that does, in fact, lace itself.

But the movies finally come to an end with a scene where Doc tells Marty and Jennifer, "Your future is whatever you make it. So make it a good one, both of you."

This reminds me of Jeremiah 29:11 from the Bible which says, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end."

In 1985, the movies — and I'm sure many people — believed there would be all of these new inventions like hover boards and flying cars in 2015. So it's safe to say the "future" isn't quite the way we had planned it to be.

But there is a wonderful future we can plan for, and that's eternal life.

All we have to do is give our hearts to Jesus Christ, and have a personal relationship with Him by praying and spending time in His Word.

We just have to listen to what He tells us, and live our lives according to His will.

Then He will give us all the peace and all the joy in the world. And when our day comes to leave this world, we won't have to die — we'll get to spend forever and ever with Jesus in our Heavenly home.

So we've finally made it to the future according to the movies, and it isn't exactly how we envisioned it. But no hover boards or flying cars will compare to the awesome future God has planned for us.

Brad Hall is the nighttime editor for the Times-Tribune. He can be reached at bhall@thetimestribune.com. You can also visit his blog at hallthingsconsidered.blogspot.com.

Source: Where are the hover boards and flying cars?

It’s not a flying car, but it comes close

SANTA CRUZ—People make pizza dough from scratch in the kitchen, while some are deep into coding in a high-ceilinged wood building in the middle of a redwood forest, and others are helping build a prototype down a dirt road past a garden that's being tended to by expert hands.

This is just the typical scene at Santa Cruz-based startup Joby Aviation, a company that hopes to kill long car rides with a four-seater electric aircraft called the S4 that could slash the bothersome commute from San Francisco to Palo Alto from one hour to 10 minutes.

"Our vision is to transform mobility," said lead engineer Scott Berry. "It's exciting to be doing something that's green."

Subscribe to Upstart Today for a daily jolt of startup news and powerful ideas.

During the May Drones, Data X Conference in Santa Cruz, Joby founder and Chief Executive Officer JoeBen Bevirt told audience members that these autonomous air taxis would mostly work for medium- to longer-range trips.

"You're not going to use this to go the grocery store," said Bevirt, a serial entrepreneur who started Joby Energy Inc. in 2008 to turn his focus to renewable energy, and founded Joby Aviation a year later.

Emergency response, transportation for organizations, recreation and tourism are other potential uses for the aircraft. A feature that differentiates Joby's product from others is the fact that these air taxis can be 100 times quieter than a helicopter and five times faster than a car. The plane's propeller blade design helps it manage noise better, Berry said.

The hope is to have the S4 ready in six years. A working prototype of the plane, which has a cruising speed of 200 miles per hour, should be in place in two years, though, if all goes well with the Federal Aviation Administration and other regulators.

Source: It's not a flying car, but it comes close

Fascination with flying cars remains as pop culture deadlines expire

There have been many impressive technological advances in the past 30 years, from the development of the Internet to the proliferation of mobile phones. As useful as these advances have been, people still strive for more. The lament you often hear as we reach the years set in certain science fiction stories is, "Where are the flying cars?"

One such milestone occurred recently on October 21, 2015. In the film "Back to the Future Part II," Marty McFly and Doc Brown travel to this date from 1985 and arrive in a world of hoverboards, self-lacing sneakers, and fusion-powered flying vehicles.

It wasn't the first time aerial vehicles appeared in pop culture. Popular Mechanics suggests that the first reference to a flying vehicle occurred in 1904, when Jules Verne's novel "Master of the World" described a vehicle that could transition between a car, boat, and plane. Flying—and foldable—vehicles were the norm in "The Jetsons," a cartoon set in 2062. And the 1982 film "Bla de Runner" portrayed a world where flying cars were common in the year 2019.

These portrayals tend to be more fanciful than serious. Bob Gale, the screenwriter for "Back to the Future," even admitted, "We knew we weren't going to have flying cars by the year 2015, but God we had to have those in our movie."

Perhaps flying vehicles will not become the ubiquitous mode of travel portrayed in science fiction. However, several prototypes have been developed and tested over the years. And some companies continue to pursue this technology, suggesting that the first models may be available for public purchase within a few years.

The past

In 1940, Henry Ford declared, "Mark my word: A combination airplane and motorcar is coming. You may smile, but it will come."

In fact, some designers had already taken a stab at making this vision a reality by the time Ford uttered this statement. The Model 11 Autoplane, designed by aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss, debuted at th e Pan-American Aeronautic Exhibition. The Autoplane essentially combined a limousine vehicle design with wings and had a speed range of about 45 to 65 miles per hour. According to Popular Mechanics, there is no record that it every actually took flight.

The Tampier Roadable was more successful. This contraption operated as a biplane while in flight, but it could also add an extra set of wheels for stability and fold up its wings for navigation on the road. The Roadable landed at the Paris Air Salon in 1921, then drove through the streets for more than two hours.

An even more bizarre design, the ConvAirCar, modified a two-door sedan with removable wings and a propeller. The ConvAirCar crashed on a 1947 test flight after the pilot mistook the vehicle's fuel gauge for the aircraft's gauge and took off with almost no fuel on board. The project was soon canceled.

According to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, the first flying car—also known as a roadable aircraft—to receive approval from federal aviation authorities was the Airphibian, designed by Robert Fulton Jr. It allowed the pilot to remove the wings, tail, and propeller to drive the fuselage as a vehicle. Charles Lindbergh flew an Airphibian in 1950, but the design was never marketed due to financial difficulties and problems in compromising the vehicle and airplane designs.

A mechanic named Leland Bryan developed a vehicle that could be flown as an airplane at speeds up to 95 miles per hour and driven on the ground at up to 60 miles per hour. He made several successful flights in the 1950s and even got permission from the Civil Aeronautics Authority to fly within 25 miles of his home.

Unfortunately, Bryan was killed while demonstrating this roadable aircraft at a 1974 air show. One year earlier, the inventor Henry Smolinski and pilot Harold Blake had been killed while testing a model that combined a Ford Pinto with a Cessna Skymaster.

The military also got into the flying vehicle game, awarding a contract for a "flying jeep" to Piasecki Aircraft in 1957. The Airgeep, as it came to be called, was developed to include vertical takeoff and landing capability and intended to deliver nuclear weapons. The Army eventually abandoned the idea, opting to improve its helicopter designs instead.

Challenges

Anyone looking to develop a flying vehicle faces some major challenges with the design. Stuart F. Brown, writing for the New York Times, says the designs of vehicles and airplanes are inherently different. As such, flying vehicle designs usually make compromises on both ends and result in a model which is lackluster both on the ground and in the air.

The engine must be powerful enough for both flight and driving, but heavier weight will also result in a longer wingspan. The wings themselves will prove a nuisance on narrow streets, so they might have to be designed to fold up while on the road. However, this also carries the r isk of reducing the vehicle's structural integrity in the air.

Since the vehicle is capable of flight, any design must be certified by the Federal Aviation Administration. Its ability to drive on the street means it must go through the regulation process set by the Department of Transportation and the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration as well.

Rachel Feltman, writing for Popular Mechanics, says one option would be to incorporate magnetic levitation into vehicle designs as well as roads. This type of travel has the potential to be very energy efficient, but it would also require a major investment in infrastructure. The vehicles would also not be the flying cars envisioned in science fiction; they would hover only a few inches off the ground.

Any vehicles flying at a higher height, however, could be a nightmarish scenario for air traffic controllers. The task of safely guiding a plethora of vehicles through the sky would be exceptionally difficul t.

Drivers would have to learn how to safely navigate in three dimensions. Driver misbehavior, such as driving under the influence or distracted driving, could have disastrous consequences. Collisions or breakdowns could result in vehicles or debris crashing to the ground and wreaking havoc on the streets and structures below.

The improvements appearing on modern vehicles could help reduce these risks, though. Anti-collision technology, autonomous systems, and vehicle-to-vehicle communication all have the potential to improve aerial navigation.

The future

Some companies have developed sleek new prototypes for flying vehicles and suggest that they may be available for public purchase within a few years. You'll just have to be prepared to pay a hefty price for these early models.

Aeromobil, a company based in Slovakia, has been working on a flying vehicle since 1990. The latest model, Aeromobil 3.0, is a two-seat roadable aircraft built from advanced comp osite materials. In flight, the design includes an autopilot and parachute deployment system.

The company says the price will not be finalized until the prototype is finalized, but expects that it will cost several hundred thousand dollars. Aeromobil hopes that it can start taking preliminary orders in 2016. It also recommends that anyone buying the vehicle get a private pilot's license or sport pilot's license.

Moller International, a company based in Davis, California, has been working on several designs with vertical takeoff and landing capability. The M400 Skycar prototype includes four engines, emergency parachutes, an operational ceiling of 36,000 feet, and a projected top speed of 350 miles per hour.

The company says it has been working on flying vehicle designs since the 1960s. It anticipates that limited numbers of the M400 will be available within three years, while an FAA-certified model will take more than four years. Moller International says the initi al purchase price will be about $500,000, but expects that it will drop to between $60,000 and $80,000 as production increases.

Terrafugia, a company based in Woburn, Massachusetts, has also been developing prototypes of flying vehicles. Its Transition model gets 35 miles to the gallon on the ground and has a 400-mile range.

Since the wings can fold up, Terrafugia says it is possible to store the vehicle in a standard garage. The first six models have already been reserved at a cost of $299,000 each, and subsequent pricing will be determined based on production costs.

Terrafugia is also working on a model called the TF-X, but doesn't expect that it will be produced for another eight to 12 years. The company says the goal for this model is to create a four-seat plug-in hybrid roadable aircraft with a range of 500 miles, vertical takeoff and landing capability, and a price comparable to that of a luxury vehicle.

Source: Fascination with flying cars remains as pop culture deadlines expire

Prof. ponders impact of driverless cars

Imagine a police officer pulls your car over as you head home from the annual office party. You, the lone occupant, reek of alcohol and slur, "Wasssh-up offisher?'

You were not actually driving the car, but was it still under your control?

Back to the Future got it wrong about the flying cars by 2015, but driverless cars could soon be rounding the corner. The Conference Board of Canada released a report this year estimating self-driving cars (not just prototypes) could be on the road by 2020-25.

It got one University of Regina professor pondering the implications for police and the law.

"If you can sit in a car that doesn't have a steering wheel or an accelerator and it takes you to where you want to go, you could technically be impaired and it not be a crime. But would it be a crime?" asks Rick Ruddell.

A justice studies professor and Law Foundation of Saskatchewan Chair in Police Studies, he notes the law may have to be rewritten.

Current impaired driving laws not only refer to operating a vehicle while drunk, but having "care or control" of it. It's why someone passed out behind the wheel with the keys in the ignition could still be in trouble.

In a self-driving car, can you text to your heart's content and not be a distracted driver? What about dozing at the wheel? Will speed traps be obsolete? Those are just a few of the questions that crossed Ruddell's mind after his interest was sparked at a presentation a couple years ago.

He noted vehicles are already available that can automatically stop if there's a perceived danger, and some parallel park assist programs do it better than humans.

"You start looking at all this and you think, well, this is today. We're maybe not all that far from the autopilot in some of these vehicles."

This spring, auto parts maker Delphi sent a driverless car on a 5,500-kilometre trip across the U.S.; a person stayed in the front seat ready to take the wheel if needed, only about one per cent of the time.

Ruddell's musings on driverless cars, the law and policing fuelled an informational poster for a recent conference in Regina. While the poster was meant as a bit of futuristic fun, some of the implications are serious.

For example, much like the rest of Canada, in Saskatchewan four times as many people die in vehicle crashes compared to homicides.

"We know that most accidents happen from human error," Ruddell said.

Driverless cars are estimated to reduce collisions by around 80 per cent.

They don't get distracted or drive aggressively; technology makes them more alert and responsive; and challenges like poor eyesight or reflexes aren't a factor.

"You're at higher risk if you're driving compared to if you're letting the machine run itself," Ruddell said.

That could affect everything from insurance to legal liability.

He said police resources could also change, noting 30 per cent of RCMP activities are focused on traffic enforcement.

"Technically, if these vehicles are that good, there will be no reason to pull anyone over."

While officers may be free for other crime fighting, ticket revenues could drop.

Ruddell also projects other job implications, such as less need for taxi drivers, autobody shops (if there are fewer crashes) and long-haul truckers.

This spring, some Saskatchewan officials attended a conference in North Dakota examining the feasibility of an autonomous vehicle corridor hauling goods from the Southern U.S. into Canada along Route 83.

"How's that going to impact jobs? There's maybe a dark side there," Ruddell said. If more people are out of work because of robocars, crime could increase. bpacholik@leaderpost.com

Source: Prof. ponders impact of driverless cars

Here's how much it would cost to insure your DeLorean, Batmobile or flying Harry Potter car

Car insurance is expensive enough as it is - but imagine what it's like for Batman.

Back to the Future's DeLorean and the flying car from Harry Potter are among the many iconic Hollywood vehicles that have dazzled viewers.

Now insurance firm 1st CENTRAL have compiled a list of movie cars to see how much they'd cost the average driver .

Although some aspects of the Back To The Future car, like the time travel enabling flux capacitor, do not exist specialists say the vehicle would cost £60,000 a year to insure.

Futuristic: Marty McFly's time travelling hover car appeared in all three classic movies

If they did decide to take the car out on a public highway , then it would be classed as a Group 20 vehicle making it extra expensive to drive.

But top of the list is Transformers truck Optimus Prime as the most expensive movie vehicle to insure.

Premium: Optimus Prime would be £1m a year to insure thanks to the high risk

With its history of collisions, containing a weapon, as well as being an alien without a fixed address the firm all count against the Peterbilt 379 truck with a £1 million quote .

Prime's truck is followed by Bruce Wayne's Batmobile, the second most expensive motor at £750,000.

Dark: You too could ride in the Batmobile as long as you have £750,000 to spare for the paperwork

The light blue Flying Ford Anglia 105E Deluxe in Harry Potter , was modified by Arthur Weasley to be able to fly and become invisible.

Despite its small size it would not be insured for any less than £70,000.

Fleeing: Mr Weasley's car can fly but it would cost £70,000 to insure

And if you fancy getting your hands on Wolverine's famous bike from the X-Men series then you'd have to fork out a whopping £150,000 thanks to its souped up capabilities.

If you've not got those funds then perhaps you can splash out on a Ducati Diavel Cromo which cost just £18,000 and can be insured for a lot less.

Bike: Wolverine's motorcycle is a pricey piece of kit and would cost £150,000 to insure

If your finances can't quite stretch that far you could always get your hands on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for just £3,500 a year in insurance costs.

A replica of the 1936 car used in the 1968 children's film was sold by Top Gear presenter Chris Evans last month at a charity auction.

With the new James Bond movie "Spectre" being released on the on Monday, Insurance firm Kwikfit's professional underwriters have calculated how much the payout for James's recklessness would be from recent smashes during Daniel Craig's tenure.

HM Insurance: Daniel Craig as James Bond, with the new Aston Martin

And they reckon this expensive spy would have cost them £1,498,855 in payouts.

With 007 driving the new Aston Martin DB10, estimated at being worth £600,000 , his premium would be on the expensive side if he was driving it for personal use.

Source: Here's how much it would cost to insure your DeLorean, Batmobile or flying Harry Potter car

6 flying cars that let you soar over traffic

By Cat DiStasio

The dream of flight has entranced humans for centuries, and modern innovators won't quit until the flying cars of sci-fi movies are realized. Although today's traffic jams still happen on the ground level, plenty of engineers have their eyes and minds on the sky. It's fascinating, if not intoxicating, to dream of the day when we might one day be able to take to the skies in a vehicle of our own, but until then, we can revel in prototypes built by dreamers with the capital to turn their high-flying ideas into a reality. Where we're going, we don't need roads.

Source: 6 flying cars that let you soar over traffic

DeLorean owners look to the future — Wednesday

By Jessica Benes

Reporter-Herald Staff Writer

Mike Siegel, foreground, attempts to disconnect the clutch master cylinder in a 1982 DeLorean DMC while the owner of the vehicle, Charlie Campion, holds a piece in place on Sunday. Campion plans to parade through Loveland on Wednesday with several other DeLorean owners in commemoration of the day that Marty McFly traveled to in the second "Back to the Future" film. Marty traveled from Oct. 26, 1985 to Oct. 21, 2015, to save his two children in the 1989 film. (Jessica Benes / Loveland Reporter-Herald)

As Oct. 21, 2015 approaches, it's interesting to note that most people aren't walking around in futuristic space outfits that self-adjust.

They aren't using self-tying shoelaces, viewing holographic billboards or commuting on hoverboards or in flying vehicles on a highway in the sky.

Marty McFly's version of the future when he travels 30 years into the future from 1985 to 2015 in "Back to the Future Part II" doesn't quite match up to today's everyday life.

But the famous DeLorean is still around.

Charles Campion of Loveland and a few of his friends are planning to commemorate the film with a ride through town in their DeLoreans on Wednesday. The car is well-known for its unique body style, side doors that lift upwards and of course, its capability to travel through time.

"I didn't get the flux capacitor on mine," Campion joked on Sunday about the device that made time travel possible in the film franchise. "Sometimes you can't afford everything."

His friend, Mike Siegel, was at Campion's home Sunday to replace the master cylinder assembly for the clutch in Campion's 1982 DeLorean.

It is hypothetically possible to get the flux capacitor installed if one believes the faux video produced by Ford last week.

"The Flux Capacitor literally makes time travel possible," the narrator in the commercial says.

Subtitles later add, "Avoid your past self at all costs, as this could potentially cause a rift in the space-time continuum."

Charlie Campion of Loveland plans to ride through town on Wednesday with several other DeLorean owners in celebration of Oct. 21, 2015, the day that Marty McFly in "Back to the Future Part II" traveled to from the year 1985. Campion purchased his 1982 DeLorean about 10 years ago. (Jessica Benes / Loveland Reporter-Herald)

And at the end, the subtitles clarify, "Obviously, this upgrade is not actually available. Happy Back to the Future Day!"

"I've had the DeLorean at least 10 years if not longer," Campion said. "I have 18 classic cars. I actually traded a 1956 Lincoln Continental Mark II to a dear friend of mine. I really wanted the DeLorean."

He said he always thought the DeLorean cars, which were only made in a three-year period, were ahead of their time.

"They only made the one body style. It's all stainless steel except for the front and back bumper area," he said. "I always thought it was a good looking vehicle."

Siegel also has a DeLorean, an early 1981 version.

"I have loved 'Back to the Future' since I was like 10 years old and I was like, 'I want that car,'" he said. He finally had the money for one in 2009 and bought it from a seller in Ohio.

Siegel said the DeLorean started his automotive career.

He tinkered with the car and realized he could fix it. He figured if he could fix that vehicle, then maybe he could fix other cars, so he got a two-year degree in automotive mechanics and worked in the field for a few years before going back to school in electrical engineering. Now, he commutes from Mead to Colorado State University for school.

He's planning to bring his DeLorean to a friend's home on Wednesday for an evening 'Back to the Future' party in Fort Collins.

"They used to call me Marty at work because I had a DeLorean," Siegel said.

While many of the fictional waves of the future are not part of everyday life in 2015, some of the advances in technology are making appearances.

"We do have the autolacing shoes and the hoverboard, but not quite what they were showing on TV," Siegel said.

And indeed, Nike announced earlier this year a plan to release self-tying shoes that tighten up when you press a tab.

Lexus has designed a hoverboard called "Slide" using superconductors and liquid nitrogen that cools the superconductors. In a video on their website, they demonstrate how the board hovers about an inch above ground and can even travel over water.

And a company called Terrafugia is developing an actual flying car with long wings that fold up along the sides for street driving and parking in a garage.

"We have been dreaming about flying cars since the turn of the 20th century. The Transition street-legal airplane is the first step on the road to the practical flying car," the developers say on the website.

None of these inventions have been released to the general public yet.

America has surpassed fax machines and phone booths of the movie — we have the Internet now — and, while holographs for films like "Jaws 19" have not made an appearance, we do have 3-D movies and flat screen TVs.

Keep an eye out for DeLoreans parading through town on Wednesday. Plans have not been finalized. Check www.reporterherald.com and the Reporter-Herald Facebook page for updates.

Jessica Benes: 970-669-5050 ext. 530, jbenes@reporter-herald.com

Source: DeLorean owners look to the future — Wednesday

1989's 'Back to Future on & off mark in vision of 2015

Published: Sun, October 18, 2015 @ 12:01 a.m.

By BRANDON KLEIN

bklein@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

If you want to take a real trip back to the future, go look outside.

There's something missing.

Despite what filmmakers told us in 1989, flying cars do not own the air, hoverboards don't yet dominate the streets and "Jaws 19" is not playing in theaters.

But that's what Oct. 21, 2015, looked like in the 1989 film "Back to the Future II" when Emmett "Doc" Brown, his dog Einstein, Marty McFly and girlfriend Jennifer Parker arrive in a DeLorean time machine at Hill Valley, Calif., from the year 1985.

It's easy to see what director Robert Zemeckis and co-writer Bob Gale got wrong about today in the sequel, which starred Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd as McFly and the Doc, respectively.

But for more than a quarter of a century, the film's version of 2015 has left an impression for fans and inventors across the world.

"I was really inspired by the movie, and it's kind of made me start trying to see what we could do better or even come close to what the movie was showing in the 2015 time period," said Jonathan Jenyk of Austintown. "Unfortunately, we didn't make every single thing that's out there now."

While growing up in Brookfield, Jonathan became an avid fan of the films. He even bought a 1981 DeLorean from an auto body shop on state Route 46 in 2012. He also has a replica of the flux capacitor — the core component of Brown's time machine — and the multi-colored hat and jacket that McFly's son wears in 2015.

Jonathan works as a system analyst for Youngstown State University and his wife, Sarah Jenyk, said he's really good with computers.

"Jonathan already had an interest in technology and the future and kind of making things better and advancing the way we live," she said. "Technology plays such a larger role in our lives today than back in the 1980s."

FLYING CARS

In the film, flying cars and rainy weather welcome Marty and his group to 2015. In that version of the future, there were still roads for shorter commutes with the words "No Landing" in certain spots.

Today's cars are still earth-bound, however.

"They had to do some outlandish things when talking about the future," said Aspasia Lyras, who runs The Little Youngstown Cinema, which has screenings twice a month downtown.

"The movie is about entertainment and comedy," said Jack Uldrich, a Minneapolis-based global futurist. He said flying-car technology is out there but not available to the public or refined as the film depicted. But when predicting the future, Uldrich says, it's often a misconception that everything is going to be new.

"It's going to be layered on top," he said.

Uldrich said there are now other companies working on flying-car technology, but most would likely be accessible to the military and the ultra-wealthy.

FITTING IN

The film also makes a fashion statement about 2015. In addition to multi-colored hat and a jacket that self-fits and dries, the Doc also provides Marty with Nike shoes that have self-tying laces.

Lyras said the fashion trends in the film were similar to the colorful styles of its era.

"They were going to take 1980s to the max, and that's what they did," she said. She added that featuring Nike in the film was part of the product-placement practices prevalent in many films during that era.

"All of those things have been merchandised one way or another," she said.

There have been reports this year that Nike will release a shoe that does come with self-tying laces although a release data has not been determined. Jenyk said its rumored to be released this Wednesday. Nike did not respond to The Vindicator's request for comment.

Additionally, Doc tells Marty to pull out his pants pockets because it's the latest fad among youth.

"They knew the styles were going to change with clothing," Jenyk said. "It seemed like they overexaggerated some of the stuff."

However, the equally silly notion of sagging pants is a fashion trend today among some urban youth.

Uldrich said fashion trends are hard to predict. "It's difficult to predict social changes," he said.

USA TODAY

USA Today was also prominently featured in the film's 2015 segment when McFly reads about his son's difficulties with the law. The filmmakers were partly right that the Gannett-owned newspaper would undergo a redesign of its logo.

But instead of the big blue orb the newspaper is using to identify itself today, filmmakers imagined a more futuristic — by 1980's standards – choice of type designs.

In the film, the paper also used drone technology, which does exist, Uldrich said.

A USA Today spokeswoman said the paper does have plans to do some celebratory features to tie into Wednesday but did not elaborate.

McFly learns from reading the paper that his son was tried, convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison within two hours of his arrest. His daughter attempts to break her brother out of jail but fails and is sentenced to 20 years in prison. He also learns that lawyers were abolished to speed up the court process.

"Unfortunately, lawyers will still exist in the future," Uldrich said.

TOWN SQUARE

The town square of Hill Valley, Calif., in 2015 showcased a variety of technological innovations and historical predictions. Among them is an automated Texaco service station refueling a car. Uldrich said that such robotics are used in manufacturing and that Tesla has developed a robot to charge an electric car.

In the same scene, McFly also comes across a movie theater showing "Jaws 19." Without warning, a holographic giant shark springs from the theater and attacks McFly.

Although he quips that the shark still looked fake, many 2015 action films have spectacular 3-D versions in theaters.

On the other hand, there have only been four films made in the Jaws franchise with the 1987 release of "Jaws: The Revenge" as the last film. But Uldrich said the film isn't far off on its caricature of Hollywood's addiction to sequels.

"We don't have "Jaws 19", but we do have "Fast and Furious 7," he said.

Universal Studios released a parody trailer this month for the film featuring all of the possible plot lines for each iteration after the fourth film.

Holograms were used throughout the town square for announcements, such as news that the Chicago Cubs won the World Series in a sweep against Miami. In 1989, the Cubs had not won a World Series title in 81 years – now 107 years – and Miami did not have a Major League Baseball franchise until 1993 with the Florida Marlins, known as Miami Marlins since 2012.

But Uldrich said there was little evolution with sports as video game competitions are starting to become televised. The film briefly implied that video games were hands free after Marty demonstrates how to play a shooting-style arcade game to kids, who consider it a baby's toy.

NOSTALGIA

The mid-1980s film celebrated the nostalgia of its era with its products in an antique store and a retro-1980s cafe. Adam Sullivan, a YSU art history professor, said the '80s would not have been nostalgia for 2015.

"In reality, culture — where we have revivals — they operate on a 20-year cycle," he said. He highlighted how 1970s culture, for example, was revived during the '90s.

"But 'Back to the Future' seems to operate on a 30-year-cycle," he said, adding that it's a compromise from the first film where Marty travels back 30 years into the past to see his parents in their youth and therefore, travels back 30 years into the future for the second film.

But the sequel's version of 2015 was "kind of like if the '90s didn't happen," Sullivan added.

HOME SWEET HOME

The film showed biometrics — technologies that use human-body characteristics such as fingerprints for authentication purposes —being extensively used in several circumstances. In 2015, police officers use a thumbprint scan to identify Jennifer Parker, Marty's girlfriend, portrayed by Elisabeth Shue. Such scans also were used to make payments and to open the door.

Today, the iPhone can be unlocked with a fingerprint, and the phone can be used to pay for merchandise.

Though most common households are still secured by lock and key today, Jenyk said he plans to install a thumbprint reader on his front door to his home.

The film accurately featured flat-screen televisions at the McFly's residence. And although fax machines are phasing out, people now do video-conferencing with services such as Skype. Uldrich said that many homes didn't have a fax machine in the 1980s.

The film's kitchen sequence shows Marty's mother hydrating a tiny pizza into a full grown one after three seconds. Uldrich said that hydrating technology was discovered to be implausible, based on research done in the 1980s.

The same sequence also shows McFly's kids wearing high-tech glasses similar, Lyras said, to the Google Glass — so-called smart glasses that the company introduced in 2013.

MISSES

But the film's biggest miss, Uldrich and Sullivan say, was the cellphone and the Internet.

"Cellphones are the most definitive thing of 2015," Sullivan said.

Uldrich said it was a strange omission in the film because bulkier versions of the cell phone existed in the 1980s.

The technology also has opened the floodgates for new services. Taxis still exist, but compete with ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft, operating in larger markets and requiring a smartphone.

But Uldrich said even futurists could not have predicted Uber or the smartphone.

"It is happening at a rapid pace," he said.

Uldrich said that a film about 2045 would extrapolate anxieties about technology such as putting people out of work and causing a lot of displacement and climate change.

While October marks the 30th anniversary of the first "Back to the Future," film released in 1985, music was less prominent in the sequel.

"There was definitely more music throughout the [first] film," Lyras said.

The Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber's Black and White Gala featured music by renowned 1980s singer Huey Lewis — whose "Power of Love" was the theme for the first movie — on Saturday evening.

But Sullivan said that music styles broke down in the 2000's and were not definitive of its era.

BACK TO THE JENYKS

The Jenyks plan to celebrate the arrival of Marty and the Doc with friends and family this Wednesday.

"It's interesting to see that's the direction they saw the world going for 2015, and in a lot of ways I think it has," Sarah said.

Jenyk said the filmmakers were more visionary and wanted things to change. And he's always on the search to collect items connected to the franchise.

"I really hope that I still see flying cars whenever I get older," he said.

Source: 1989's 'Back to Future on & off mark in vision of 2015

Solar Cars Are Upon Us!

Ideas are great. 50 years ago, people thought we'd have flying cars and a perfect environment. And we're far from perfect, but we're getting there.

It's just taking a while, and circumstances are significantly different.

Solar panels have become building blocks of many aspects of our lives, given the urgency for alternative energy systems. There are entire houses powered by solar panels, lights on roads, speedometers…

And cars.

Courtesy of Futuro Solare

Solar cars in concept are already incredibly expensive, but it doesn't always have to be.

Futuro Solare introduces the Archimede Solar Car, the future of all solar energy automobiles.

The Archmede Solar Car is destined for greatness. It's made of cheap materials: carbon, aluminium, fiberglass and kevlar. It can run up to 62MPH, and it transforms solar energy to electric energy by photovoltaic panels, thus charging the batteries and bringing the engine to life.

The project is filled with promise, and passion as well. The team is dedicated to bringing education on automobile technology as well as solar energy, and giving university students the opportunity to work and research these new technologies.

The car looks cool as heck, though there's no prototype just yet, but it's made with the highest functionality rate and the cheapest materials to bring an accessible project to a very accessible future.

Courtesy of Futuro Solare So car enthusiasts, speed enthusiasts and everyone i between, we may after all see a fuel-less car that doesn't cost us our life insurance.

This is an ambitious project but an attainable one, and it will inspire many to follow suit. Their goal is to advance technology in Sicily and eventually, the world, kickstarting it all with the Archimede Solar Car, and Futuro Solare is sure to see its dream moving in real time (hopefully) quite soon.

You can support their efforts by visiting their website here.

Comments

comments

Source: Solar Cars Are Upon Us!

Back to the Future: Truth is stranger than sci-fi

WHEN Marty McFly and "Doc" Brown burst into 2015 in a time machine, straight from the year 1985, they encounter a brave new world of garbage-fuelled flying cars, self-tying shoes and robot waiters.

For audiences in 1989, when CDs were the height of hi-tech, science fiction comedy "Back to the Future II" portrayed an exciting world 30 years down the line in which people would flit around on gravity-defying hoverboards, sporting self-drying, auto-adjusting clothes, and dogs are walked by drones.

Disappointingly, many of the gadgets anticipated by script-writers who dropped the movie's oddball pair – and their hot-rod DeLorean time machine – into the "future" on October 21, 2015 have failed to materialise.

Yet in many ways, the 2015 of reality is even more radically altered from what filmmakers Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale could have imagined, say futurists who study and project trends.

What we can do with smartphones now was almost inconceivable then.

"Their capabilities today, including access to all information on the planet, would have absolutely astounded even most futurists of 30 years ago… who didn't imagine a phone would be for anything other than speaking and texting," Sydney-based futurist Ross Dawson told AFP.

"Back when the movie was made, people looking at the reality of today would find it quite mind-boggling."

Technology we would now struggle without — such as Google and Wikipedia, social networking sites Facebook and Twitter, smartphone GPS, and online shopping, would have been hard to envisage when the movie came out.

World without email

In the film, Marty, played by a young Michael J. Fox, receives a dismissal notice at home by fax — a now-clunky technology that seemed cutting-edge in the 1980s. The Internet revolution was lurking just around the corner, and the world had yet to receive email.

In 1985, only about a quarter of US households had a microwave oven, and videocassette recorders (VCRs) were the must-have viewing technology.

Today you can buy a home 3-D printer on the Internet for a few hundred dollars, which can produce anything from a gun that squirts water to one that shoots bullets.

We can "download" songs and "stream" films  — terms  that did not even exist in 1985.

We can edit the human genome to fix disease-causing DNA, we have grown hamburger "meat" from cow muscle cells, and we have placed a robot probe on a comet hundreds of millions of kilometres from Earth.

"Humans very quickly get used to innovations and take them for granted," said Dawson, founder of the Future Exploration Network, which offers scenario planning services.

Still, the film did get some things right.

We do have flat screens, live video-calling, tablet computers, and portable up-to-the-minute weather apps.

Though not yet in full swing, we also have biometric technology for paying bills or unlocking doors with a fingerprint, and off-the-shelf smart glasses similar to those worn by Marty's offspring.

More sci than fi?

"It was actually quite visionary of them to get so many things right," said Thomas Frey of the DaVinci Institute, a futurist thinktank.

"They depicted it in kind of a comical, goofy way actually, but I think they did quite a phenomenal job back then of anticipating things that must have seemed fairly ludicrous at the time."

Some predictions were ahead of their time.

Thirty years ago, most futurists would have given flying cars by 2015 "greater than 50-50 odds," independent futurist Jack Uldrich told AFP by telephone from Minneapolis.

"There are some companies that are working on flying cars, but what they don't have is that take-off (vertical) lift," as demonstrated by Doc's DeLorean.

Innovators have drawn inspiration from the movie: California-based firm Hendo is creating a hoverboard which works on magnetic repulsion. Shoemaker Nike is working on sneakers with self-tightening "power laces" like the ones Marty wore.

What next?

Sci-fi has influenced scientific advancement through the ages, but the task may become harder as technological development accelerates exponentially.

Will humans be teleporting, travelling in time, or discover the secret to eternal life by 2045? Who knows, the experts say.

"One of the things which we could very easily see in 30 years is… humanoids and other robots just being a complete part of our environment," Dawson said.

Also likely is "people using their thoughts to control the world around them, even to use their thoughts to communicate directly with other people."

Dawson foresees a future not with flying cars per se, but rather self-driving pods — a cheaper and safer alternative.

One thing that the movie got wildly wrong: lawyers have not been "abolished".

"I think a lot of people wished that had come true," quipped Uldrich — but then who will settle disputes between humans and robots in the future?

Source: Back to the Future: Truth is stranger than sci-fi

Battle With The DeLorean In Rocket League

Buy games related on this topic at | Amazon

On October 21, 2015 a kid from the past named Marty McFly will arrive in our world; full of hoverboards, self tying sneakers, and flying cars. Also arriving that day, the DeLorean Time Machine ready to do battle in Rocket League.

In celebration of the day that Marty McFly traveled to in Back to the Future Part II, developer Psyonix announced via blog that they'd be putting out the "Back to the Future Car Pack" DLC which will include the iconic car (fully equipped with the burnt rubber rocket trail).

Psyonix's Vice President of Marketing, Jeremy Dunham, showed his excitement and inner fanboy at the announcement of this new DLC.

Truth be told, we used to fantasize and joke about having the DeLorean Time Machine in our game months before it even came out. We were all such huge Back to the Future fans here at Psyonix, that it was one of the few "Holy Grails" we had hoped for besides having a hit game. The fact that we're getting both of those "best-case scenarios" in the same year is an amazing accomplishment for us, they're things we'll never forget!

The "Back to the Future Car Pack" DLC will retail at $1.99.

Psyonix is just the latest in line to join the Back to the Future Day fun. Fans of the film may also want to pick up one of the 6,500 limited edition Pepsi Perfect bottles as seen in the film priced at $20.15 (get it?) being sold that day. Telltale Games is also re releasing their 2011 Back to the Future: The Game, with updated graphics and voice acting, in celebration of the movie's 30th anniversary.

Share this article Comments
Source: Battle With The DeLorean In Rocket League

Forget Flying Commercial: The Personal Airplane Is Taking Off

Updated Oct. 9, 2015 7:09 p.m. ET

Let's fantasize a little: It's the Friday afternoon of a long weekend. The roads are jammed, so driving from Manhattan to your vacation home in Massachusetts' Berkshire hills will take hours. The airports are going to be mobbed, too. But the Hudson River dock where you park your seaplane is walking distance from the office. You get in, start her up and take off.

While this may sound improbable, it isn't completely outlandish, thanks to a newish class of diminutive, two-seat aircraft known as light-sport planes. In addition to being easier to fly than many of the traditional small planes that have been on the market for decades, a few of these newcomers have been bestowed with superpowers of the aviation world. There's the ICON A5, which can take off and land on water as well as paved runways and grass. A flying car called the Transition, slated for release in a year or two (if all goes as planned), promises to eliminate the hassle of renting a car at your destination since, after you land, you can drive away in this aircraft. And the SuperSTOL, an old-fashioned-looking plane with a fabric-covered steel-tube frame, may eliminate the need for airports altogether. It can take off and land in relatively tight spaces—"runways" as short as 150 feet long, instead of the 2,000 feet or more required by similarly sized planes.

Light-sport aircraft have been around for more than a decade. They cater to pilots with a "starter" license that the Federal Aviation Administration introduced in 2004, part of an effort, hashed out with pilots' groups and plane manufacturers, to make personal-air travel more accessible. A light-sport license is considerably easier to acquire than a traditional private-pilot certificate: It requires about half as many hours of training—roughly 20 hours—which also makes it less costly. (Budget about $4,000 to $6,000 if you want one.) Of course, there are restrictions: You can only fly during daylight in good weather, not in conditions that call for flight instruments (foggy or cloudy skies, for example). Also, the weight and power of your plane cannot exceed set limits, and it can carry no more than two people.

Granted, flying your own plane isn't as safe as flying commercial. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the fatality rate for small private planes in 2010 (the latest year available) was 2.09 deaths per 100,000 hours flown. The fatality rate for commercial air travel that year is tallied differently—0.02 deaths per 100,000 aircraft departures—but was clearly lower.

Risk notwithstanding, I took my first flying lessons in 1988, long before the light-sport trend got off the ground. Even though I have the more advanced private-pilot license today, a handful of companies are trying to lure weekend pilots like me into their plane's cockpits, not just with the speed and thrill of flying but with the ability to land closer to their destinations—or even, in the case of the Transition, to drive their planes directly there.

Terrafugia, based in Woburn, Mass., hatched its plan for the Transition flying car a decade ago, after pegging the nation's 5,000 small public airports as some of our most underused resources. "The disadvantage with general-aviation airports is that they tend to be in out-of-the-way places where you need a car to get to your final destination," said Carl Dietrich, who serves as both CEO and CTO of the company. "We designed the Transition to cover what we like to call 'the last mile.'"

In fact, a fully fueled Transition is designed to be able to cover hundreds of miles on land or fly up to 400 miles. According to Mr. Dietrich, the $299,000 vehicle was intended to give beginner pilots the option of driving when inclement weather makes flying unsafe. Its 100-horsepower engine, which powers the wheels in car mode and the rear-facing propeller in plane mode, is a popular design from Austrian company Rotax. (All of the aircraft mentioned above use similar engines from Rotax). The Transition was scheduled to go on sale a few years ago but has been plagued by production and funding delays. Terrafugia has given numerous demonstration flights, however, and the Transition does fly and drive.

The more conventional-looking SuperSTOL, which costs around $135,000 and is available now, solves a different problem: Having enough space to land. Its solution is to rethink the landing process. Large adjustable flaps at the rear of the wings and extensions on the leading edges expand the wings' surface area as needed, letting them function almost like parachutes. This allows the SuperSTOL to descend steeply if slowly—like a gently falling leaf—thus reducing the size of the runway required. Outsize landing gear with monster-truck-style shock absorbers and fat tires let the plane simply plop down without leveling off for a long touchdown, as conventional planes must do. The special wing also gives the SuperSTOL enough lift to take off from fields that seem impossibly short.

But among the latest designs, the ICON A5 is the only one designed to take off from water—a boon for people with shorefront homes: Imagine touching down 100 yards off shore and taxiing up to your lake house. (Just be sure to check local ordinances. Some lakes do not allow seaplanes while others require pilots to also have boating licenses. And laws about landing an aircraft in your yard—even your extremely large one—do vary.)

I only fully understood the potential for such a landing when I took an A5 for a test flight from New York's Hudson River with ICON founder (and former fighter pilot) Kirk Hawkins. Rather than the steering-wheel-like yoke found in many modern aircraft, the A5 has a control stick on each side of the cockpit and a T-shaped throttle handle on a console in the center—a configuration many flying purists (myself included) appreciate because it feels more like a fighter plane. The layout of the A5's flight instruments is a beginner's dream. Airspeed, altitude and engine gauges are easy to read and set in a carlike dashboard.

With its removable side windows taken out, flying in the A5 felt like a Piper Cub, a celebrated small plane designed in the 1930s that can be flown with its windows and doors open. The A5's large windshield gives a wide view that made spotting potential hazards easier as we flew up and down the Hudson, where airspace is often as crowded as the river itself. I had no trouble viewing the helicopters and sightseeing planes vying for a closer look at the Statue of Liberty.

Between my stints at the controls, Mr. Hawkins took over to demonstrate the A5's maneuverability. He pulled the plane into a steep nose-up attitude that would cause a typical small plane to stall and drop sharply or even fall into a deadly spin. But the A5 just plowed along. Eventually it began to descend, but slowly enough that most pilots would have time to lower the plane's nose, pick up speed and return to normal flight.

'A light-sport license is easier to acquire than a private-pilot certificate: It requires roughly 20 hours of training.'

Over the Hudson, the A5 cruised along at about 95 miles an hour, which feels fast in the small plane—the way a tiny Mazda Miata feels racy going 50 mph—but it is in fact slower than the Cessna that I regularly rent. And the A5's sticker price of $189,000 might give potential buyers pause. While the tab for an A5 is modest compared with many brand-new planes, it is steep compared with the $30,000 price tag of a decent 30- to 40-year-old Cessna 172, which can carry a family of four. (Indeed, my need to fly with my wife and our two sons was the reason I opted to get a private pilot's license instead of a light-sport.) That said, the A5 and other light-sport planes are much less expensive to run than standard aircraft. The A5 burns 3.8 gallons of fuel per hour, which is pretty miserly. (Aviation fuel costs about $5 per gallon for a total of about $19 per hour. The A5 can also use premium automotive gasoline, which at the current national average of $2.79 comes to about $11 per hour.)

And the A5 is zippy and undeniably fun to fly. As I soared over the traffic-choked George Washington Bridge, lined up the A5 for a landing and set it down gently on Hudson, I couldn't help imagining doing the same thing at Martha's Vineyard, Block Island or one of the thousands of lakes and rivers across the U.S.

My family and I would just have to trade our standard road-trip song, "Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer," for "Up Where We Belong."

Up, Up and Away... Someday

Three highflying, two-seat wonders that may be coming soon to a sky near you

THE ECO-FRIENDLY CHOPPER: Volocopter VC200

With 18 propellers, the drone-like VC200 will be able to take off and land vertically like a helicopter, yet is designed to be easier to fly, according to e-volo, the German company behind the battery-powered aircraft. The VC200 is steered by joystick and doesn't require foot pedals, as a helicopter does; it will also stay aloft should some of its propellers fail. The current prototype can fly for 20 minutes—a stat that is expected to get more impressive as battery technology improves. A manned test-flight is scheduled for later this year. Production is slated for 2017.

THE ELECTRIC PLANE: E-Fan 2.0

The France-based Airbus Group is spearheading a family of electric-powered aircraft, dubbed the E-Fan program, that will consume no fuel, emit no CO2 or NOx emissions and will be substantially quieter than gas-powered airplanes. The E-Fan 2.0 will be a two-seater version, and although it won't be available until late 2017, the underlying technology is real. This summer, the E-Fan 1.0, powered by lithium-ion batteries, became the first twin-engine electric plane to cross the English Channel.

AND ANOTHER FLYING CAR: AeroMobil 3.0

The Slovakian company AeroMobil is developing a flying car that is functionally similar to Terrafugia's Transition—but visually, it's a svelte dragonfly to Terrafugia's bumblebee. AeroMobil's makers say the car will be able to take off and land on short, moderately rough fields. However, it is not as far along as the Transition in gaining government certification in Europe. The company said it plans to start deliveries in two to three years.

COFFEE, TEA OR FREEDOM?

In the not-too-distant future, you'll be able to take off from the comfort of your driveway. Here's how that might compare to air travel today.

Departure Mindset

Flying Commercial: Frazzled and frustrated, after frantic hunt for child's favorite plush doll/sleep aid, then cab ride from hell.

Flying Yourself: Calm and collected, after couch nap and final kitchen pit stop for veggie chips.

Baggage Strategy

Flying Commercial: Lug bags into terminal and brave endless check-in line, or leave them outside with handlers, hoping you tipped enough that they reach destination.

Flying Yourself: Leave plane's engine running while you trot back into your house to get golf bag (nearly forgot!).

Check-in Requirements

Flying Commercial: Must show six forms of ID, one birthmark or scar, and a notarized testimonial from the obstetrician who delivered you.

Flying Yourself: Ignition key must fit.

Screening Process

Flying Commercial: TSA asks you to remove coat, shoes, belt, wallet and dignity.

Flying Yourself: Your passenger asks you, "Were you going to wear those shoes, honey?"

Boarding Rules

Flying Commercial: Must wait for all other boarding groups to board first, knowing full well there won't be enough overhead space left to store either of your pizza ovens.

Flying Yourself: Nobody boards until this episode of "West Texas Investors Club" is over, and that's final!

Flight Delays

Flying Commercial: Must wait six hours in Houston so plane in front of yours can fix critical sticking-food-cart-wheel issue.

Flying Yourself: Must wait for FedEx guy to get the truck out of your driveway/runway.

Seating Options

Flying Commercial: Window, aisle or "human sandwich" options, all available with endearing waif kicking your seat back.

Flying Yourself: Panoramic cockpit view. Sorry, no coach or economy seats.

Onboard Entertainment

Flying Commercial: Sanitized Russell Crowe film you never wanted to see in its original form; in-flight magazine where someone already—darn!—did the crossword.

Flying Yourself: Buzzing your neighbor's garden party, "Top Gun"-style.

—Keith Blanchard

Source: Forget Flying Commercial: The Personal Airplane Is Taking Off

Simon Cowell wanted flying car on birthday

TV mogul Simon Cowell has revealed that he wanted a flying car for his 56th birthday.

Cowell turned 56 on Wednesday and joked how he is an "easy" person to buy for despite having t he gift that has not yet been invented at the top of his wish list, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

Asked ahead of his birthday what he'd like from girlfriend Lauren Silverman, Cowell said "I would like a flying car".

"I saw one and I read about it in Top Gear recently. I thought, 'God, if there is anything I want, that is it'. It is the coolest thing. If they can make one, that would be top of my list. I want the flying car. I'm easy to buy for," Cowell was quoted as saying by The Sun newspaper.

However, "The X Factor" judge will have to wait if he wants to purchase the motor as a company called Terrafugia are in the process of making one but it won't be available until 2023.

According to June's edition of Top Gear magazine, a 200 mph car with fold-out wings, twin electric motors and a computer controlled 500-mile flight range, is being made and will reportedly cost between 400,000-500,000 pounds.

Source: Simon Cowell wanted flying car on birthday

Simon Cowell wanted a flying car for his 56th birthday

By: PTI | London | Published:October 9, 2015 2:17 pm Simon Cowell, who turned 56 on October 7, joked he is an "easy" person to buy for despite having the gift that has not yet been invented at the top of his wish list. (Source: Reuters)

Music mogul Simon Cowell says he wanted a flying car for his 56th birthday.

Cowell, who turned 56 on October 7, joked he is an "easy" person to buy for despite having the gift that has not yet been invented at the top of his wish list, reported Contactmusic.

"I would like a flying car. I saw one and I read about it in Top Gear recently. I thought, 'God, if there is anything I want, that is it'.

"It is the coolest thing. If they can make one, that would be top of my list. I want the flying car. I'm easy to buy for."

The "X Factor" judge, however, will have to wait for the flying car as a company called Terrafugia are in the process of making one but it will not be available until 2023.

By: PTILondon Published:Oct 9, 2015, 14:17
Source: Simon Cowell wanted a flying car for his 56th birthday

Jaws 19’ Trailer Released As ‘Back To The Future II’ Finds Its Way Into Reality

A Jaws 19 trailer has just been released by Universal Pictures. This clever trailer is a spoof in tribute to the 1989 movie Back to the Future II where Marty McFly travels into the future.

In the movie, shortly after McFly arrives in the fictional future, he is standing outside a movie theater when a 3D shark hologram jumps out at him. The digital image is a promo for the upcoming movie Jaws 19. Although startled at first, he regains his composure and says, "The shark still looks fake."

For the past 26 years, fans of the Back to the Future franchise have been anxiously awaiting October 21, 2015. This is the date Marty McFly arrives in the future. Interestingly, although there is no real Jaws 19 movie, some of Back to the Future's predictions have come about.

Just as in Back to the Future II, "Pepsi Perfect" will be real, well for a short time anyway. PepsiCo will be releasing a limited edition line of "Pepsi Perfect" bottles on October 21. There will only be 6,500 bottles available and only sold online for $20.15. Despite the "Perfect" label, the beverage inside the bottle will be the same, usual Pepsi. If you want to get one early, PepsiCo will have 1,500 bottles available at New York Comic Con about a week before than the official release.

Pepsi Is Releasing the Bottle from "Back to the Future II" http://t.co/TbqW6wkVkv pic.twitter.com/0Jon1h8bjz

— Popular Mechanics (@PopMech) October 7, 2015

In a report by WOKV News, Nike is planning to release self-lacing, light-up shoes similar to the ones worn by Marty in the 1989 sequel. The laces will be powered by motorized rollers that tighten when someone's foot is inserted into the shoe. Supposedly, the shoes are an enhanced version of its Nike Air Mag line that was released in 2011.

According to a recent article by the Independent, Back to the Future II hoverboards will soon be a reality. With the help of funding raised through Kickstarter, Arx Pax will be shipping its Hendo Hoverboard. The board is powered with four "hover engines" and levitates via a self-generating magnetic field. If you pledged $10,000 or more to the project, you will be one of the first to get one.

Tablets, hi-tech eyewear like Google Glass, and video conferencing were all foreseen in the movie and have come into existence. However, fax machines still being widely used in 2015 was something Back to the Future II got wrong. Also, many are still waiting for the flying cars too.

According to the movie, the Chicago Cubs are supposed to win the World Series in 2015. Many baseball fans are wondering if that is still a possibility.

REMINDER: 'Back to the Future II' predicted the @Cubs would win 2015 #WorldSeries: http://t.co/rTRUhmCswP #WildCard pic.twitter.com/JoGwJalp0S

— Good Morning America (@GMA) October 8, 2015

Let's do this! #cubbies #playoffs I believe in "Back To The Future II" prophesy! pic.twitter.com/wFRochGKvk

— Michael Muhney (@michaelmuhney) October 8, 2015

One other prediction that did not reach our present reality was a release of an actual Jaws 19 film. Even though back in 1989 when Back to the Future II was in theaters, moviegoers felt that the possibility of it happening felt real as October 21, 2015 seemed like such a long time away. Yet, now that the date is upon us and no movie, at least we have the Jaws 19 trailer to entertain us.

With Hollywood's recent deluge of sequels and remakes, there is no telling if a Jaws 19 will somehow become a reality. However, as previously reported by the Inquisitr, a Back to the Future reboot may be in the works.

Another trailer recently released trailer has Christopher Lloyd returning as Doc Brown. Apparently it is a teaser for a short film that will be released as a bonus feature on the upcoming Back to the Future 30th anniversary Blue-Ray set.

If you want to experience the Back to the Future movies again, Universal Pictures plans to re-release all three films in limited theaters on October 21, while Amazon Prime will be streaming them as well.

[Photo courtesy: Angela Weiss/Getty Images]

Source: Jaws 19' Trailer Released As 'Back To The Future II' Finds Its Way Into Reality

Runaway cows, paint-licking horses and low-flying ducks: Craziest car insurance claims revealed

By Ruth Lythe for the Daily Mail

Published: 18:05 EST, 6 October 2015 | Updated: 04:20 EST, 7 October 2015

15

View comments

Damage caused by a runaway cow, paint-licking horses and a low-flying duck were among the bizarre insurance claims made by drivers this year.

More than 500 claims involving animals were made to the over-50s insurer Saga last year.

They included a driver who claimed £1,200 after returning from a walk in the Dartmoor National Park to discover 12 wild ponies licking the paint off his car.

Crunch time: It's not just other cars that get blamed for causing accidents

Another motorist suffered £800 of damage when a runaway cow (still attached to the post it had uprooted) escaped at an agricultural show.

One driver on his way to a wedding had a narrow escape when a deer jumped out in front of his car and he slammed on the brakes. 

Unfortunately, he was then hit by a second deer which jumped out of the bushes, straight into the car, causing £2,000 of damage. Both deer escaped unharmed.

Another claim involved a motorist who was on his way to a boatyard when he spotted a low-flying duck. He swerved to avoid the mallard but ended up hitting a stone bridge. 

The duck escaped but the car needed £1,500 of repairs.

But it was a cat which caused the most damage. It took an ill-judged nap inside the bonnet of the vehicle. 

When the driver started the car, there was a strange noise. They saw the cat darting off, leaving behind £4,000 of damage in its wake.

Roger Ramsden, chief executive of Saga Services, says: 'It seems that just about anything can send a road trip into turmoil.' 

Natu ral hazards: More than 500 claims involving animals were made to the over-50s insurer Saga last year

 

 

Source: Runaway cows, paint-licking horses and low-flying ducks: Craziest car insurance claims revealed

Back to the Future promised flying cars by October 2015, where are they?

Comments

AA

Back to the Future promised us flying cars in October, 2015. Have I missed them? Maybe I don't look up from my iPhone enough. But seriously, why don't we have flying cars already? — Tyler, Calgary

Where we're going, we probably need roads.

"Sure, you can make a flying car—they've shown up at auto shows every once in a while—but they cost hundreds of thousands of dollars," says futurist Michael Rogers in an email. "But what you get, for a lot of money, is a car that doesn't work very well and an airplane that doesn't work very well."

Porsche GT3 RS for The Globe and MailDrive Video Video: Porsche perfects the street-legal race car, but you shouldn't get it Insurers are likely to cover claims related to cars using park-assist, as long as the driver has collision insurance. Fordpoll Reader survey: Do you believe automated technology is better than humans at parallel parking? The Sky Commuter 'flying car' designed in the 1980s will be up for auction in January 2015 in Arizona. Barrett-Jackson AuctionsTrans-Canada Highway Once-futuristic 'flying car' up for auction

Rogers calls flying cars "catnip for futurists" — for decades, there have been predictions that we're just a few years away from one in every driveway.

The Back to the Future series showed us a flying DeLorean from 2015.

So, 30 years later, where's our Don Valley Skyway?

Flights of fancy?

In 2014, Toyota announced that it was working on a vehicle that would hover just barely above the road to reduce road friction. In 2012, Volkswagen released a video of a prototype maglev car floating off the ground — but that was CGI, not a real car.

Meanwhile, at least three companies say they are working on flying cars.

American company Terrafugia and Slovakian company Aeromobil have designed prototypes of flying cars — planes with retractable or foldable wings — that have to be flown by a licensed pilot.

Aeromobil's prototype crashed earlier this year, but both companies say its planes should be delivered to customers by 2017.

D utch company PAL-V is taking pre-orders in Europe for a €299,000 ($441,000) car-gyrocopter hybrid.

"Users will need a Gyrocopter pilot license, which requires 30-45 hours of training," says PAL-V CEO Robert Dingemanse in an email. "It is the easiest and safest way of flying and it is great fun to learn — the vehicle will be allowed for normal road use."

Meet George Jetson?

Futurist Richard Worzel says the biggest roadblocks keeping flying cars from taking off are regulations, cost and practicality.

"There are already amphibious cars, but they were never popular because they're complex, expensive, temperamental, and of limited use," says Worzel in an email. "I wonder if, contrary to what the Terrafugia website indicates, whether the (Ministry of Transportation) and the (Federal Aviation Administration) will allow a pilot who doesn't know how to fly at the controls, even with sophisticated computer controls."

Rogers says some futurists ("rightly embarrassed by the no-show status of the flying car") are saying flying cars will be smart and self driving by the 2030s. The idea is that self flying cars wouldn't need regulations.

But Rogers thinks self-driving cars aren't right around the corner, let alone flying ones.

"I don't expect truly autonomous cars to be available for general usage until the early Twenties at the soonest," Rogers says. "And again, an autonomous flying car is a 3D navigation problem, not 2D."

Sci-fi's flying cars typically float off the ground without a rail or guideway. In Back to the Future, Marty McFly's hoverboard floats too.

In 2015, we can't actually do that. Although, we do have a two-wheel scooter called a hoverboard that doesn't actually hover. And, we've got another Kickstarter-funded hoverboard with a prototype that apparently floats on a special metal surface. Earlier this year, Lexus made one too.

"Now, there's one break through technology that could change all this: an effective antigravity device — of course, we don't even understand gravity on a theoretical level at this point, so antigravity might take a little longer," Rogers says. "On the other hand, 150 years ago we didn't have a realistic theory of electricity either, and we've done pretty well with it since then."

Like us on Facebook

Follow us on Instagram

Add us to your circles

Sign up for our weekly newsletter

Follow us on Twitter: @GlobeDrive

  More Related to this Story

Trans-Canada Highway Forget self-driving cars, will self-flying cars be the future?

Trans-Canada Highway Toyota files patent for wings for possible flying car

Trans-Canada Highway Lexus introduces a real hoverboard

Source: Back to the Future promised flying cars by October 2015, where are they?

Bruce Wennerstrom, Founder of Yearly Beauty Contest for Classic Cars, Dies at 89

Photo Bruce Wennerstrom in 2010 at the Greenwich Concours d'Elegance, a competition and auction held annually in Connecticut. Credit Debra C. Argen/Luxury Experience

Bruce Wennerstrom, who became smitten with automobiles as a Queens teenager and, with his wife, inaugurated the annual Greenwich Concours d'Elegance competition and auction in Connecticut for vintage car devotees, died on Wednesday in Greenwich, Conn. He was 88.

The cause was prostate cancer, his brother-in-law, Richard Walukanis, said.

"In their teens, a guy's hormones and gasoline all get mixed up together," Mr. Wennerstrom liked to say. "Most outgrow it. I never did."

Not for decades.

He test drove cars into his 80s. Once he even took a spin in a lunar rover — on Earth.

He owned a 1996 Buick Roadmaster station wagon (with a Corvette engine) for weekend chores, but he favored more exotic possessions: a limited edition 1957 Dual Ghia, notable for its finned, handmade body and Chrysler chassis (other owners included Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.), and his 1983 and 1985 German Bitters. (Fewer than 500 of these were made, and Erich Bitter, the designer, told him that the Wennerstroms were the only family to own two, he said.)

Photo Mr. Wennerstrom and his wife, Genia, at their home in Greenwich with their German-made Bitters.

The Greenwich Concours is one of three such automotive events featured in the North American edition of "1,000 Places to See Before You Die." AmeriCares receives proceeds from the affair.

At the most recent Concours, a two-day affair in June, Bonhams auctioned off a 1938 Bugatti Type 57C Stelvio convertible for $1.45 million.

Another outlet for Mr. Wennerstrom's enthusiasm was the Madison Avenue Sports Car Driving and Chowder Society, a group of car lovers founded in 1957 by Art Peck, the president of CBS Radio, and King Moore, an advertising executive. Mr. Wennerstrom regularly presided over its monthly lunches at Sardi's in Manhattan.

Bruce Kent Wennerstrom was born in Kew Gardens, Queens, on Dec. 20, 1926. His father, John, was a clothing manufacturer. (He made Bruce's uniform when the son went off to the Army, to serve in Washington State and the Aleutians.) His mother was the former Anna Ursula Thompson.

Mr. Wennerstrom graduated from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where he met Genia Walukanis, who became a writer and illustrator and whom he married in 1955. She died in 2011. He is survived by their children, Nord, Leif, Kirk and Bria Wennerstrom; two grandchildren; and his brother, Edward.

Mr. Wennerstrom went to work in publishing. He became chief executive of Previews Inc., a real estate company, and, in 1984, chairman and president of Sotheby's International Realty.

With his wife, Mr. Wennerstrom founded the auto competition in Greenwich, where they lived, in 1996. The family has said the Greenwich Concours will continue, along with its display of eclectic exotica, which has included a World War I tank, a Terrafugia Transition flying car and a Tupolev 007 Russian amphibious craft.

Last year, Mr. Wennerstrom piloted a 1966 two-seat Fitch Phoenix, built by the racer John Fitch, across Greenwich for the Concours. He described driving the car as "a bit intimidating — it's the only one in the world." The Phoenix sold at auction for $253,000.

"Cars are worth what someone will pay for them," Mr. Wennerstrom said. "It's the ultimate free market."

Correction: October 2, 2015

An earlier version of this article misstated Bruce Wennerstrom's age. He was 88, not 89. The headline repeated the error.

Source: Bruce Wennerstrom, Founder of Yearly Beauty Contest for Classic Cars, Dies at 89