Flying Cars And Technological Change: How Will This Change Our Buildings?

Technology is advancing at an exponential rate. We have already seen technologies which were once at the forefront of innovation quickly become out of touch if they did not continually evolve to remain ahead of the tech curve. Who would have thought ten years ago the rise of the smartphone would make the iPod obsolete? Our buildings are no different, they need to be prepared for future technology trends. With these technologies already here or only a few years away, we can begin to imagine how our buildings will be different as a result. We have identified four trends which will change the way buildings will be designed:

Driving efficiency with driverless cars

Uber and Lyft have permanently disrupted the transport market by allowing us access to personal transport within minutes of opening our smartphones, creating a user-friendly model that is now used globally. However, accessibility is only the beginning of this transport revolution. On demand cars, coupled with the development of driverless cars, is anticipated to spell the end of personal cars and the need for car parks. If cars were put into some constant flow for public use, there would be less need for parking space, making way for new development such as housing and workspace. Within office buildings, parking space could also be converted into new, innovative office features such as break out rooms and communal areas. Given the recent growth of driverless technologies, it is likely that driverless car will be the norm within the next decade. But before workers and developers have even had the chance to adjust to driverless cars on the road,

Uber are already plotting their next groundbreaking idea: flying cars

.

Is it a bird, is it a plane.. no it's an Uber

Flying cars have become a symbol of the future in films and cartoons, from

The Jetsons

to

Back to the Future

. However, the dream of being able to press a button, fly over traffic and dramatically cut down travel time may soon become a reality. Leading tech firms will showcase the first flying cars in the next few years. Both

Uber Elevate

and

SkyDrive

are set to launch their flying taxis and cars in 2020. If these trials are successful, the cityscapes we know now will be drastically transformed to reflect this breakthrough. We have already seen how the increased use of alternative transport, such as cycling, has prompted urban planners to modify roads to include cycle lanes. In turn, landlords have created office spaces with bike storage and shower facilities to give tenants more flexibility on how they choose to travel to work. With flying cars on the horizon, our cities and buildings may be forced to evolve again. It may be the case that after 2020, developers will decide whether to invest in a landing pad on their buildings' roofs for their tenants' flying cars.

© Provided by Huffington Post

Skyhigh delivery targets

Amazon is leading the charge on drone deliveries. Once ready, it is likely going to make the ecommerce giant an even more attractive hub for retailers. Drones will eliminate many of the challenges created by the "last mile" of delivery, the final stage when the package arrives on the customer's doorstep, which is often the most expensive and inefficient leg of the journey. While improving the experience for consumers and cutting out a key pain point in the delivery journey for retailers, the use of drones will also demand a shift in how deliveries are accepted. In large cities, Amazon are considering

"beehives" for drone deliveries

which will serve as centres for drones to take off and land, and will be built to blend in with the surrounding high rises. Similarly, for office buildings, we may see receptions shifting to the roof in order to receive parcels.

That's a bright idea

Our expectations of internet connections have risen dramatically in recent years. Today, even speeds of 1Gbps shared across an office do not always feel fast enough. This may change with the introduction of LiFi, a new wireless technology that is up to 100 times faster than the average WiFi today. LiFi uses a technology called Visible Light Communication to transmit massive amounts of data, meaning that you are connected to the internet via the LED bulbs around the office. In simple terms: whenever the lights are on, you are connected. Similar to the predictions that 5G could eclipse the use of 4G, LiFi has the capacity to supersede WiFi. With its impressive upload and download speeds, and its shorter range meaning it is more secure than WiFi, it is conceivable that WiFi will meet the same fate as ethernet cables, or indeed the iPod. Cities and buildings are not static entities; they evolve just as the people living in them do. While some of these projects may seem ambitious or ou tlandish to us today, they are all driven by a desire to improve and create buildings that enable us to live and work in environments at the cutting edge of technology.

Source: Flying Cars And Technological Change: How Will This Change Our Buildings?

14 Sci-Fi Movies That Made Us Want Flying Cars, Smart Watches and Bionic Limbs

Life imitates art. At least, that's what my boss keeps telling me every time I wear my Iron Man mask during important meetings. Honestly though, tech entrepreneurs have to admit that a lot of their great ideas were dreamed up by movie directors 50 years ago. From Dick Tracy's smartwatch to Rosie, the Jetson's artificially intelligent robot, the world of pop culture past is filled with fortuneteller-like technology predictions that would impress even the most skeptical of naysayers.

The trend does, however, stand to reason. After all, it's pretty easy to come up with an innovative idea when things like hardware, software, and money don't factor into the equation. Aren't writers just entrepreneurs that aren't shackled to the business world, but only to their wildest imaginations? Don't they have seemingly unlimited resources at their avail to create the next smartphone or the newest social media platform? All it takes is a thought and a pen; or in this case, a Macbook Air.

Have you been wondering which movies I'm referring to this whole time? Well, you're in luck, because GetVoIP has compiled a comprehensive list of 14 sci-fi movies and television shows that predicted innovative technology, like smart watches, flying cars, and yes, even bionic limbs, decades before their invention.

You'll find military robots from Short Circuit in 1986, self-driving cars from Total Recall in 1990, and even virtual assistants found in 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968 on this list, as well as many others. Take a look at the infographic below for more sci-fi predictions years ahead of the world:

Read more about entertainment and technology on TechCo

Source: 14 Sci-Fi Movies That Made Us Want Flying Cars, Smart Watches and Bionic Limbs

AeroMobil 4.0 Flying Car Unveiled, Transforms Into Flight Mode in Under 3-Minutes and Can Hit 100MPH

After years in the making, AeroMobil has finally unveiled the final, commercial design for its flying car. Called the AeroMobil 4.0, it's expected to cost between $US1.3 million and $US1.6 million, with deliveries beginning in 2020. This vehicle can transform into flight mode in less than 3 minutes, and as a car, it has a top speed of 100 mph with a 434 mile range. In the air, the vehicle can fly for 466 miles and reach a top speed of 223 mph. The vehicle is currently certified to operate in Europe, but AeroMobil plans to eventually release it in the US and China. Click here to view the first image in today's viral picture gallery. Continue reading for a viral video of mid-air paintball collisions in ultra slow motion.

Source: AeroMobil 4.0 Flying Car Unveiled, Transforms Into Flight Mode in Under 3-Minutes and Can Hit 100MPH

The Jetsons Were Right About One Thing, And It Wasn’t Flying Cars

The Jetsons had flying cars, but you rarely hear about their widespread usage of IoT connected devices—the robot maid, IoT toothbrushes, digital diary, and even a connected refrigerator/chef. In the 60's era animated sitcom, George Jetson and his family were surrounded by a plethora of connected devices making their lives easier and more accessible. Maybe they were wrong about flying cars becoming commonplace in the early 21st century, but they were dead right about the usage of connected devices to improve the way we interact with the world around us.

It's 2017 and there are almost 10 billion connected devices in use around the world. Just like in the cartoon sitcom, these devices are improving the way we work, communicate, and live. This trend is not only found within the household, but also in large metropolitan areas, factories, vehicles, and even in transportation logistics; the enterprise. Cities are beginning to connect lamp posts, bus stops, train stations, crosswalks, and other infrastructure to better understand and optimize the world around us. Meanwhile, factories are employing more and more connected devices to help optimize manufacturing, packaging, and transportation efficiency. Robots now work together in teams to assemble cars, machine parts, and package goods.

However, a connected system requires these complicated networks of devices to work with each other in a safe and efficient manner. Integration technologies have been the backbone of digital transformation initiatives for almost two decades, and remain at the forefront of the data story. Connected ecosystems require integrations to send and receive data, perform tasks based on outcomes of other tasks, and react to real-time event triggers. However, integrations must be lightweight and reusable in the modern world. Things change too quickly to waste time with heavyweight integration code.

I suspect that the technology companies producing the Jetsons' connected experience were using some form of cloud-based integration platform, known for ease-of-use and a lightweight footprint. A platform like TIBCO Cloud Integration would allow them to write APIs, connect data, and create the clever integrations we often marveled at in the show. George's network of systems and devices, all interconnected, helped to improve his experience and that of his family. His costs were driven down by improving the way he interacted with the world and by providing him with necessary information and functionality when it was relevant. His family operated on a digital-first business model. He was able to react to information, access data across platforms, and interact with the world around him using data-producing connected devices.

As the world of connected devices continues to grow, the need for integration grows right along with it. The TIBCO Cloud Integration platform provides a low-code integration platform for easily creating APIs to connect the vast network of devices in the modern enterprise. As systems in factories become more automated, data will become the lifeblood of their operation. Faster, easier-to-consume APIs will help companies become more efficient, while allowing them to innovate beyond traditional business models.

Businesses can benefit from the same luxuries offered to the Jetsons. Not only will APIs and their vast networks of connected devices improve operational efficiency, they will open the door to innovative new business models. Systems will be able to monitor, in real-time, any number of different machines and operations. Public transportation systems can begin communication on a large scale, optimizing routes and reducing traffic during peak hours. Vehicles will be able to report maintenance issues before they occur by interpreting sensor data from a variety of sources to reduce maintenance costs and increase safety. Factories can become more efficient by utilizing connected machinery to improve manufacturing throughput and accuracy.

The Jetsons only scratched the surface of connectivity. The world is just opening up to the connected ecosystem and the possibilities are endless. Maybe there will be flying cars buzzing over major metropolitan areas one day; but one thing is for sure, the city below will contain a web of connected devices, making our lives easier and more efficient each day.

Bob O'Brien is a Digital Strategist with TIBCO Software. He loves a challenge and strives to help companies to say "yes" to innovation, partnerships, and deeper data insights. Through thought leadership and customer engagement, Bob enjoys helping businesses remain competitive in the ever-changing digital landscape. He is passionate about data, integration, analytics, APIs, and all things digital. An avid outdoorsman, Bob spends most of his free time in the vast Colorado outdoors fishing, skiing, dirt biking, and camping.

Source: The Jetsons Were Right About One Thing, And It Wasn't Flying Cars

Video Friday: Robogami, Flying Snake Robots, and Autonomous Car Eclipse

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your Automaton bloggers. We'll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next two months; here's what we have so far (send us your events!):

IEEE ICARM 2017 – August 27-31, 2017 – Hefei, China IEEE RO-MAN – August 28-31, 2017 – Lisbon, Portugal CLAWAR 2017 – September 11-13, 2017 – Porto, Portugal FSR 2017 – September 12-15, 2017 – Zurich, Switzerland Singularities of Mechanisms and Robotic Manipulators – September 18-22, 2017 – Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria ROSCon – September 21-22, 2017 – Vancouver, B.C., Canada IEEE IROS – September 24-28, 2017 – Vancouver, B.C., Canada RoboBusiness – September 27-28, 2017 – Santa Clara, Calif., USA Drone World Expo – October 2-4, 2017 – San Jose, Calif., USA HAI 2017 – October 17-20, 2017 – Bielefeld, Germany ICUAS 2017 – October 22-29, 2017 – Miami, Florida, USA

Let us know if you have suggestions for next week, and enjoy today's videos.

Of course designing robots is challenging, but if someone were to make it easy, how could we justify publishing all of these papers and putting on conferences and stuff? Sigh, thanks MIT.

"Designing robots usually requires expertise that only mechanical engineers and roboticists have," says PhD student and co-lead author Adriana Schulz. "What's exciting here is that we've created a tool that allows a casual user to design their own robot by giving them this expert knowledge."

Casual roboticists? Is that a thing you can be...?

[ Paper ] via [ MIT CSAIL ]

FLYING SNAKE ROBOT

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute says the combination of a drone and snake robot (that can make a cute little "C" shape when it wants to be picked up) is ideal for accident monitoring.

[ KAERI ]

That nifty Voliro drone from ETH Zurich is being put to work by the team of undergrads who invented it, because apparently getting that drone to work in the first place wasn't good enough and they had to do more stuff in order to get their degrees.

[ Voliro ]

A more in-depth look at the Democratic Robot, which finished 5th in the July 2017 Weaponized Plastic event, despite limited weaponry and defenses consisting primarily of printed pictures of kittens. The Democratic Robot is unique among the entrants in that it did not have a driver controlling it, instead using an electronic voting system built with a Raspberry Pi and the Telegram app.

[ Fetch Robotics ]

For whatever it's worth, the new world record for simultaneous robot dancing is now 1,069 instead of 1,007.

There was at least one robot getting a face full of concrete there, I guess that's probably why it's a weird number like 1,069.

[ Guiness ] via [ BB ]

Somehow, the Dyson Rapid Development Challenge was not won by the adorable little robot elevator at 1:07.

[ Dyson ]

Intel experts examine what it will take for people to trust autonomous cars. In this video, community members experience a driverless ride -- and share their reactions.

[ Intel ] via [ Engadget ]

While I dislike most drone delivery videos, this is at least one case where "we have a dumb drone that can dumbly haul stuff from one nearby place to another as long as there are no obstacles in the way" is actually useful, since there's a bunch of water in the way.

From the looks of it, though, that's a big stretch for "urban environment."

[ Flytrex ]

Brought to you by the latest "let's staple a weapon to a drone and overproduce a video about it" company:

[ Duke Robotics ]

Your autonomous car doesn't care a jot whether there's an eclipse happening, which is a good thing, I guess?

TORC's autonomous car also does quite well in the rain:

On the first day of our coast-to-coast trip from Washington, D.C., to Seattle, Washington, the team experienced a downpour while navigating through heavy traffic. "In the worst of the West Virginia downpour, the car could see better than we could," said one of Torc's safety drivers who participated in the trip. Our local tests included autonomous lane changes, passing, and merging on and off highways—all through rain. Torc's multi-sensor approach used the strength of several sensors (including radar and LiDAR). The sensors have a 360°-view of the cars' surroundings, and we utilize our proven algorithms along with real-time data to help the car "see" through low visibility.

[ TORC Robotics ]

It's not every day you see a robot crab with four legs and a humanoid robot with six (!) arms both beating up on a robot that may or may not be made of solid gold:

[ Biped Robot News ]

This video summarizes the deployment of applications on Valkyrie performed by Steven Jens Jorgensen from the U. of Texas at Austin and other researchers at NASA, IHMC, and U. Michigan. Given desired end-effector poses, a nonlinear optimization routine is used to solve the whole-body Inverse Kinematics (IK) of NASA's Valkyrie robot while satisfying balance constraints.

Maybe one day, I'll get a chance to fist bump Valkyrie like that bottle of Tide did.

[ UT HCRL ]

Sharp edged tools and objects pose a severe problem and allow collaborative robots (Cobots), to move only with inefficient velocities. [DLR] recently introduced a Robotic Airbag, which covers these sharp edges within less than a second always before the Cobot starts moving. Pressure sensors detect the safety status of the Robotic Airbag and provide collision detection. The Robotic Airbag is pulled back again when the object has to be released or the tool is required.

Can I get one of these just, like, for fun?

[ DLR RMC ]

We present a quadrotor system capable of autonomously landing on a moving platform using only onboard sensing and computing. We rely on state-of-the-art computer vision algorithms, multi-sensor fusion for localization of the robot, detection and motion estimation of the moving platform, and path planning for fully autonomous navigation. Our system does not require any external infrastructure, such as motion-capture systems. No prior information about the location of the moving landing target is needed. We validate our system in both synthetic and real-world experiments using low-cost and lightweight consumer hardware. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a fully autonomous quadrotor system capable of landing on a moving target, using only onboard sensing and computing, without relying on any external infrastructure.

[ Paper ] via [ UZH ]

RoboCup simulation league is a far cry from reality, but UT Austin is scarily good at it. Their virtual NAOs managed to score 171 goals in RoboCup 2017, and they were scored on zero times. Here are 10 minutes worth of highlights; some of them are pretty incredible.

If only NAOs could do that in real life, right?

[ UT Austin Villa ]

This video is a bit tedious, but it's showing something important- the first demonstration of an autonomous "crash into me instead of crashing into a human" truck.

A better way of solving this problem, I think, is to just put everyone in autonomous cars instead. Much safer.

[ Wired ]

Should your driverless car kill you if it means saving five pedestrians? In this primer on the social dilemmas of driverless cars, Iyad Rahwan explores how the technology will challenge our morality and explains his work collecting data from real people on the ethical trade-offs we're willing (and not willing) to make.

[ TED ]

Source: Video Friday: Robogami, Flying Snake Robots, and Autonomous Car Eclipse

Self-Flying Cars: Pittsburgh Company Making ‘The Jetsons’ Become Reality

Follow KDKA-TV: Facebook | Twitter

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Meet George Jetson — for real.

Someday, in the not too distant future, there will be self-flying vehicles, which will be able to shuttle you from place to place without the aid of a pilot.

A Pittsburgh company is developing smart technologies, like a laser and sensor system, to make sure you arrive there safely.

"What it's able to do is as it flies it's able to then understand the world in three dimensions, and understand that the route that it's taking might get to close to something that would be problematic," said Near Earth Autonomy CEO Sanjiv Singh

At Near Earth Autonomy in Bloomfield, computer scientist and roboticists are developing so-called "computer brains" for autonomous flying drones and helicopters. It's similar to the self-driving technologies being developed by UBER and other companies nearby.

Just this week, Singh announced that it had entered a partnership with Airbus to outfit self-flying cars to land safely, steering clear of unexpected obstacles.

"That could be power lines, it could be trees, vegetation grows very quickly here," Singh said.

At an airstrip in Allison Park, they are putting the technology through the paces. They've arranged large shipping containers to test the avoidance technology.

Once perfected, it will be used on the self-flying cars of the future.

"Do we see this happening exactly the way it was in 'The Jetsons' that every family has a self-flying vehicle and you can get out of your home and fly. I don't know if that happens in the near future," said Singh.

But the technology is already finding it's applications and uses in aviation, and the first commercial uses of self-flying vehicles may only be years away.

And, as in other technological advancements, a Pittsburgh company will be taking the lead.

Source: Self-Flying Cars: Pittsburgh Company Making 'The Jetsons' Become Reality

Video Friday: Robogami, Flying Snake Robots, and Autonomous Car Eclipse

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your Automaton bloggers. We'll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next two months; here's what we have so far (send us your events!):

IEEE ICARM 2017 – August 27-31, 2017 – Hefei, China IEEE RO-MAN – August 28-31, 2017 – Lisbon, Portugal CLAWAR 2017 – September 11-13, 2017 – Porto, Portugal FSR 2017 – September 12-15, 2017 – Zurich, Switzerland Singularities of Mechanisms and Robotic Manipulators – September 18-22, 2017 – Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria ROSCon – September 21-22, 2017 – Vancouver, B.C., Canada IEEE IROS – September 24-28, 2017 – Vancouver, B.C., Canada RoboBusiness – September 27-28, 2017 – Santa Clara, Calif., USA Drone World Expo – October 2-4, 2017 – San Jose, Calif., USA HAI 2017 – October 17-20, 2017 – Bielefeld, Germany ICUAS 2017 – October 22-29, 2017 – Miami, Florida, USA

Let us know if you have suggestions for next week, and enjoy today's videos.

Of course designing robots is challenging, but if someone were to make it easy, how could we justify publishing all of these papers and putting on conferences and stuff? Sigh, thanks MIT.

"Designing robots usually requires expertise that only mechanical engineers and roboticists have," says PhD student and co-lead author Adriana Schulz. "What's exciting here is that we've created a tool that allows a casual user to design their own robot by giving them this expert knowledge."

Casual roboticists? Is that a thing you can be...?

[ Paper ] via [ MIT CSAIL ]

FLYING SNAKE ROBOT

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute says the combination of a drone and snake robot (that can make a cute little "C" shape when it wants to be picked up) is ideal for accident monitoring.

[ KAERI ]

That nifty Voliro drone from ETH Zurich is being put to work by the team of undergrads who invented it, because apparently getting that drone to work in the first place wasn't good enough and they had to do more stuff in order to get their degrees.

[ Voliro ]

A more in-depth look at the Democratic Robot, which finished 5th in the July 2017 Weaponized Plastic event, despite limited weaponry and defenses consisting primarily of printed pictures of kittens. The Democratic Robot is unique among the entrants in that it did not have a driver controlling it, instead using an electronic voting system built with a Raspberry Pi and the Telegram app.

[ Fetch Robotics ]

For whatever it's worth, the new world record for simultaneous robot dancing is now 1,069 instead of 1,007.

There was at least one robot getting a face full of concrete there, I guess that's probably why it's a weird number like 1,069.

[ Guiness ] via [ BB ]

Somehow, the Dyson Rapid Development Challenge was not won by the adorable little robot elevator at 1:07.

[ Dyson ]

Intel experts examine what it will take for people to trust autonomous cars. In this video, community members experience a driverless ride -- and share their reactions.

[ Intel ] via [ Engadget ]

While I dislike most drone delivery videos, this is at least one case where "we have a dumb drone that can dumbly haul stuff from one nearby place to another as long as there are no obstacles in the way" is actually useful, since there's a bunch of water in the way.

From the looks of it, though, that's a big stretch for "urban environment."

[ Flytrex ]

Brought to you by the latest "let's staple a weapon to a drone and overproduce a video about it" company:

[ Duke Robotics ]

Your autonomous car doesn't care a jot whether there's an eclipse happening, which is a good thing, I guess?

TORC's autonomous car also does quite well in the rain:

On the first day of our coast-to-coast trip from Washington, D.C., to Seattle, Washington, the team experienced a downpour while navigating through heavy traffic. "In the worst of the West Virginia downpour, the car could see better than we could," said one of Torc's safety drivers who participated in the trip. Our local tests included autonomous lane changes, passing, and merging on and off highways—all through rain. Torc's multi-sensor approach used the strength of several sensors (including radar and LiDAR). The sensors have a 360°-view of the cars' surroundings, and we utilize our proven algorithms along with real-time data to help the car "see" through low visibility.

[ TORC Robotics ]

It's not every day you see a robot crab with four legs and a humanoid robot with six (!) arms both beating up on a robot that may or may not be made of solid gold:

[ Biped Robot News ]

This video summarizes the deployment of applications on Valkyrie performed by Steven Jens Jorgensen from the U. of Texas at Austin and other researchers at NASA, IHMC, and U. Michigan. Given desired end-effector poses, a nonlinear optimization routine is used to solve the whole-body Inverse Kinematics (IK) of NASA's Valkyrie robot while satisfying balance constraints.

Maybe one day, I'll get a chance to fist bump Valkyrie like that bottle of Tide did.

[ UT HCRL ]

Sharp edged tools and objects pose a severe problem and allow collaborative robots (Cobots), to move only with inefficient velocities. [DLR] recently introduced a Robotic Airbag, which covers these sharp edges within less than a second always before the Cobot starts moving. Pressure sensors detect the safety status of the Robotic Airbag and provide collision detection. The Robotic Airbag is pulled back again when the object has to be released or the tool is required.

Can I get one of these just, like, for fun?

[ DLR RMC ]

We present a quadrotor system capable of autonomously landing on a moving platform using only onboard sensing and computing. We rely on state-of-the-art computer vision algorithms, multi-sensor fusion for localization of the robot, detection and motion estimation of the moving platform, and path planning for fully autonomous navigation. Our system does not require any external infrastructure, such as motion-capture systems. No prior information about the location of the moving landing target is needed. We validate our system in both synthetic and real-world experiments using low-cost and lightweight consumer hardware. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a fully autonomous quadrotor system capable of landing on a moving target, using only onboard sensing and computing, without relying on any external infrastructure.

[ Paper ] via [ UZH ]

RoboCup simulation league is a far cry from reality, but UT Austin is scarily good at it. Their virtual NAOs managed to score 171 goals in RoboCup 2017, and they were scored on zero times. Here are 10 minutes worth of highlights; some of them are pretty incredible.

If only NAOs could do that in real life, right?

[ UT Austin Villa ]

This video is a bit tedious, but it's showing something important- the first demonstration of an autonomous "crash into me instead of crashing into a human" truck.

A better way of solving this problem, I think, is to just put everyone in autonomous cars instead. Much safer.

[ Wired ]

Should your driverless car kill you if it means saving five pedestrians? In this primer on the social dilemmas of driverless cars, Iyad Rahwan explores how the technology will challenge our morality and explains his work collecting data from real people on the ethical trade-offs we're willing (and not willing) to make.

[ TED ]

Source: Video Friday: Robogami, Flying Snake Robots, and Autonomous Car Eclipse

“Flying Cars in the Future” Is the Perfect Meme for This Dumb Year

eherty/iStock

Our present is always built on the ruins of possible futures. The history of science fiction is littered with hopeful, but unrealized predictions. When our prophecies do come true, they too often prove to be waking nightmares, showing only that we often fail to heed the warnings of our predecessors.

That sense of frustration is central to a meme that's recently been making the rounds on Twitter and other sites. Like all the best memes, its basic grammar is simple and easily replicable. At some point in the past, it proposes, we imagined the future would bring us flying cars. But here in 2017 … things are a little different.

The internet scholars of Know Your Meme trace the origins of this trend, which they title "I Bet There Will Be Flying Cars in the Future," to a Facebook post from February. It subsequently populated through the Reddit ecosystem before ultimately exploding on Twitter. Its spread is likely a sign of the times: Where 2016's best meme told concise, personal stories of our collective fall from grace, this new one reminds us that we already live in fallen times, calling out the goofy reality of our supposed accomplishments.

A recent New York magazine hadline describes the meme as "bleak." That's an understandable take, but it also misses the silliness that has precipitated the popularity of "Flying Cars in the Future." As one recent study indicates, a significant percentage of Americans really do want autonomous flying cars. That we don't have them yet isn't so much a reason to mourn as it is an opportunity to laugh at the branching paths of technological progress. It is no surprise, then, that meme-makers frequently use it to poke fun at the debased state of innovation.

(Roughly translated, the sign in that last one reads, "We have fidget spinners with lights and Bluetooth.")

These examples don't suggest that 2017 is awful (though it is, in many ways), so much as they demonstrate that it is dumb. Flying cars are, as Slate's Henry Grabar puts it, "the quintessential undelivered promise of future," but we're arguably closer than ever to making them a reality—and yet we're no better off for it. Last year, Bloomberg Businessweek reported that Google co-founder Larry Page had dumped more that $100 million into a flying car startup. More recently, news broke that DeLorean Aerospace was working to develop a two-seat vertical takeoff and landing vehicle.

If or when those contraptions do arrive, we'll almost certainly roll our eyes at them too. The hype surrounding them is already, Grabar warns, a distraction from our willingness to invest in much needed public transportation infrastructure. By the time we get airborne taxis, we may be left with crumbling roads and nonexistent bus systems: hardly an ideal eventuality, let alone a future that will be fun to live in. Meanwhile, the vehicles themselves will surely serve as signifiers of ludicrous luxury, there because we were supposed to invent them, not because we really needed to. Like the original DeLorean, they will soon strike us as silly precisely because they speak to the future we once imagined, not what we want in the present.

That's arguably as it should be. Today inevitably disappoints because it is not tomorrow. But as "Flying Cars in the Future" shows us, we can and should always laugh at our failures.

Source: "Flying Cars in the Future" Is the Perfect Meme for This Dumb Year

Pittsburgh company to land self-flying cars

Updated 16 minutes ago

What goes up must come down, right?

Airbus, which is working to develop autonomous flying cars in Silicon Valley, is teaming with a Pittsburgh company to ensure that the aircraft will be able to land safely.

Bloomfield-based Near Earth Autonomy makes laser and sensor systems for autonomous aerial vehicles such as drones and helicopters and will provide hardware for Vahana , the self-flying car that Airbus is working on in Silicon Valley.

Airbus and Near Earth Autonomy announced the partnership Wednesday.

A concept drawing of a Vahana aircraft waiting for passengers | Photo from Vahana

"It is one critical part," Near Earth Autonomy CEO Sanjiv Singh said about landing the autonomous aircraft. "Something could be off about that (landing) place. Maybe there's another vehicle there that was supposed to take off but didn't."

Vahana is a rotor-driven aircraft that can take off and land vertically like a helicopter. Its eight rotors are strung across wing-like booms in the front and back of the aircraft. Vahana would operate like an Uber or Lyft for the sky, with riders requesting the aircraft to pick them up in one location and fly them to another location.

Vahana hopes to have a full-size prototype in the sky before the end of 2017.

"When you descend far away from where you started, it's really hard to guarantee that the place you're going to land is safe," Singh said.

A laser scanner developed by Near Earth Autonomy will bolt onto the aircraft being developed by Airbus. The package of sensors, known as Peregrine, will evaluate the landing zone for objects sticking up from the surface, such as trees, trash cans and cars, and for slopes that could complicate landing. It builds a 3D model of the landing zone and adds more detail as the aircraft descends. At 20 meters from the ground, about the height of a six-story building, the sensors can detect small objects, Singh said.

If the hardware determines the desired landing zone is not safe, it will scan the surrounding area for a better place.

"The emphasis has been on what does it take to actually fly," Singh said about the development of self-flying vehicles. "Typically, there is very little work on the autonomy side that is necessary for it to fly safely."

Vahana's carbon fiber exterior under construction in Silicon Valley | Photo from Vahana

To land the partnership with Airbus, Singh and his team had to execute 50 flawless landings. In 50 landings, the hardware was allowed only one false positive — sensing something that isn't actually there — and wasn't allowed to miss any objects as small as 1 foot.

Near Earth Autonomy worked on the project for about six months. Singh said the deal with Airbus is a significant step forward for the Carnegie Mellon University spin­off company. Peregrine required an increased robustness that could be bolted onto an existing vehicle.

"We've gone from a research prototype to one that has a higher grade of reliability," Singh said.

Aaron Aupperlee is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at aaupperlee@tribweb.com, 412-336-8448 or via Twitter @tinynotebook.

Source: Pittsburgh company to land self-flying cars

Delorean Aerospace Enters the Flying Car Race

Aviation

Published on August 22nd, 2017 | by The Beam

August 22nd, 2017 by The Beam 

Sometimes life really does imitate art. That is, if you consider the Back To The Future trilogy to be a piece of art, which you really should as it is a verifiable cinematic masterpiece. At the end of the first film, there is a defining moment where the DeLorean car takes off vertically before flying off into the sky. This paves the way for the second film, set in the future, where flying cars have become the normal mode of transport. Now Paul DeLorean, nephew of John DeLorean — creator of the classic car made famous by the series — is on a mission to produce a flying car that would make this futuristic vision a reality.

The Delorean DR-7 vehicle is being developed by DeLorean Aerospace, the company at which Paul DeLorean is CEO and chief designer. It is planned to be a vertical takeoff and landing vehicle (VTOL) that will have space for two people and be electrically-powered. Vertical takeoff is achieved by two fans that are placed along the center of the vehicle, one at the front and one at the back. These fans lift the vehicle into the air, before rotating to provide power to move the vehicle forward. In terms of size, the widest section of the wingspan will be 5.6m and the overall length will be 6m. There will be two sets of wings and a small set of winglets, with the large wings able to be folded towards the main body of the vehicle to allow for storage.

A flying car with a 193km range

What sets this flying car apart from the others being produced by the likes of Airbus and Uber is the range it is aiming for. For other electric flying vehicles, the ranges are being touted as falling somewhere between 40km and 80km, but the DeLorean flying car is aiming for a range of 193km, which is far greater than the distance its rivals are hoping to achieve. The DeLorean DR-7 is also aiming to be capable of fully autonomous flight.

While we're a few years off from seeing flying cars in action, their imminent arrival does herald a new list of challenges that need to be faced and understood now. With the huge rise in the proliferation of electric vehicles, there is the big question of how to build the necessary refueling infrastructure to accommodate the increasing number. In addition to energy supply, there is the more prescient question of how to regulate the use of self-driving and flying vehicles, and how these integrate with the current more regular modes of transport.

As you can see in our flying vehicles overview, some vehicles are closer to hitting the market than others, with flying taxis tipped to be operational in Dubai in 2017. We've already seen how drone technology created challenges for regulating airspace, so we can expect to see this intensified for flying cars. But where there's a will, there's a way, and a DeLorean offering in the push to take to the skies makes it an exciting race to witness.

Check out our new 93-page EV report, based on over 2,000 surveys collected from EV drivers in 49 of 50 US states, 26 European countries, and 9 Canadian provinces.

Tags: Delorean Aerospace, Delorean DR-7, VTOL

About the Author

The Beam The Beam Magazine is a quarterly print publication that takes a modern perspective on the energy transition. From Berlin we report about the people, companies and organizations that shape our sustainable energy future around the world. The team is headed by journalist Anne-Sophie Garrigou and designer Dimitris Gkikas. The Beam works with a network of experts and contributors to cover topics from technology to art, from policy to sustainability, from VCs to cleantech start ups. Our language is energy transition and that's spoken everywhere. The Beam is already being distributed in most countries in Europe, but also in Niger, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Japan, Chile and the United States. And this is just the beginning. So stay tuned for future development and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Medium.

Source: Delorean Aerospace Enters the Flying Car Race

Why aren't they flying a flag at half mast? It was first raised by an American TV show - and soon the question was sweeping the restive crowds at Buckingham Palace

As the 20th anniversary of Princess Diana's death approaches, this special report studies the aftermath 

Reporter Jonathan Mayo reconstructs the seven days which followed in a devastating day by day account

By Jonathan Mayo For The Daily Mail

Published: 18:05 EDT, 21 August 2017 | Updated: 18:13 EDT, 21 August 2017

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They were the seven days that shook the world, from the death of Princess Diana to her funeral at Westminster Abbey. 

In this poignant series to mark the 20th anniversary, Jonathan Mayo reconstructs those momentous events as they happened though the eyes of Royal Family members, politicians, the Princess's family, and a heartbroken public . . .

Monday, September 1, 12.15am Paris time/ 11.15pm UK time 

Jill and Ernie Rees-Jones are walking down the Champs-Élysées in Paris to get some air. Their son Trevor, the Princess's bodyguard and sole survivor of the crash that killed her, is lying unconscious in the nearby Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital. There is huge media and public interest in Trevor's recovery, as his memories may unlock the cause of the crash.

Suddenly a car races towards them, and Ernie pushes Jill out of its way just in time. He kicks the car as it passes and yells at the driver. But Jill can see the funny side: if she'd been hit, she could've ended up in a bed next to Trevor.

Princess Diana's English oak and lead-lined coffin arrives at St James's Palace in a hearse belonging to the royal undertakers Leverton & Sons. It is carried into the 16th-century Chapel Royal and placed on a catafalque surrounded by four tall candles in front of the altar and then covered in a white cloth.

In 1588, Elizabeth I prayed in the chapel when England was threatened by the Spanish Armada, and in 1840 Queen Victoria married Prince Albert here.

Where is the flag? Buckingham Palace came under fire in the days after Princess Diana was killed when there was no flag flown at half mast in respect to the late royal 

8am

Diana's butler Paul Burrell has returned from Paris to work at Kensington Palace. Looking at his desk diary he can see that today a tailor should have been arriving to fit William and Harry out with new suits. Burrell starts to remove the parcel tape that yesterday morning he'd placed across the doors of Diana's apartments to keep them sealed and safe.

One of Diana's maids, Lillie Piccio, is making up the Princess's bed for the last time. She carefully puts Diana's lipstick, eyeshadow and mascara into the make-up bag on top of her dressing table.

At his office in Harrods, Mohamed Al Fayed's spokesman Michael Cole is telling reporters that the crash was caused by 'a Gallic kamikaze faction' who were 'disgusting creeps'. The driver of the Mercedes, Henri Paul, was 'a sober, model employee, who after a recent medical check to re-qualify for his pilot's licence was clearly fit to drive the car'.

German newspaper Bild has a picture of the wrecked car on its front page, and Dodi and Diana can be seen inside. No British paper is using these pictures.

Sole survivor: Trevor, the Princess's bodyguard and sole survivor of the crash that killed her, spends the days following her death lying unconscious in the nearby Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris 

Concerned: Parents Jill and Ernie Rees-Jones, pictured walking down in Paris to get some after visiting son Trevor in hospital. There is huge media and public interest in Trevor's recovery, as his memories may unlock the cause of the crash

10am UK time/ 11am Paris

In the 19th-century Chinese Drawing Room in Buckingham Palace, the first meeting to decide the arrangements for the funeral is convening. They have only five days to get everything in place.

Prominent are the staff of the Earl of Airlie, the Lord Chancellor, who is responsible for pageantry and ceremonial, but others include Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's Press secretary, Prince Charles's spokesman Mark Bolland, the Queen's Press spokesman Dickie Arbiter, and representatives from the church and police.

The Queen's deputy private secretary Robin Janvrin and Prince Charles's private secretary Stephen Lamport are in Balmoral, linked via a speakerphone in the middle of the table. They discuss who to invite to the funeral. The Spencer family and the Royal Family have their own lists; the Princess's staff has names based on her Christmas card list.

A sign has been placed outside St James's Palace saying 'The Book of Condolence Queue' which was last used for Winston Churchill's death in 1965. There are only half a dozen people waiting.

The prosecuto r's office in Paris releases results of the autopsy on Henri Paul. It says he died instantly and that tests on blood, urine and fluid from Paul's eyes have revealed he had a blood/alcohol level more than three times the legal driving limit in France.

10.15am

Outside Buckingham Palace, photographer Kent Gavin is being jabbed in the ribs. 'You killed her!' a woman says to him. Gavin says nothing and walks away. Then some girls join in. 'You're all to blame!' they shout. He leaves as quickly as he can.

11am

Mercedes Benz has announced that the launch of its new S-Class car, the type used in the crash, has been postponed. 'It would not be appropriate,' a spokesman says. All horseracing on Saturday, the day of the funeral, has been cancelled and the National Lottery draw will take place on Sunday.

There have been calls on the government to scrap the Millennium Dome in Greenwich and instead build a children's hospital in memory of Diana. Hello! magazine is pulping thousands of copies of this week's edition, which speculated that Diana and Dodi might marry.

The last haunting picture: The Princess looks over her shoulder as driver Henri Paul takes the wheel of the Mercedes and Al Fayed bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones appears concerned at the unfolding drama in Paris 

Final hours: In a CCTV image shortly after midnight, Diana appears anxious as she and Dodi walk outside before being collected in their car

Midday UK time/1pm Paris

In the City of London there is a minute's silence. All the exchange floors are quiet. Then Lloyd's of London rings the Lutine Bell, the traditional herald of bad news.

At a Red Cross landmine conference in Oslo, 400 delegates also hold a minute's silence. In January, Diana had transformed attitudes to landmines by making a highly publicised visit to Angola where she met victims and walked through a minefield.

In the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital, Myriah Daniels, the holistic healer from California who was on holiday with Dodi and Diana, has her hands on Trevor Rees-Jones' head. She had arrived at the Rees-Joneses' apartment offering help. Watching Myriah pray are his mum Jill, stepfather Ernie — and Trevor's estranged wife Sue from whom Trevor is in the process of getting a divorce.

Trevor doesn't respond to Myriah, but when Sue edges closer and speaks to him he moves. Jill is overjoyed but also concerned — what if Trevor wakes up and has forgotten his marriage is over?

1pm

At Buckingham Palace the first funeral planning meetin g ends. They have decided that it should be a break from tradition — her coffin will be carried on a gun carriage rather than in a hearse, and a big proportion of the congregation in Westminster Abbey should be made up of representatives of the charities Diana supported. Some questions remain unresolved, such as who should walk behind the coffin.

The tradition is that royal males with a military connection walk behind the gun carriage. Fears were expressed that the public feeling against Prince Charles was so strong that things could turn nasty if he chose to walk as part of his ex-wife's funeral cortege.

The Queen has ordered all radios and televisions to be removed from Balmoral so William and Harry aren't upset by the coverage of their mother's death. The television in the Queen's private sitting room remains, however. Some of the staff are following the events in London via radios concealed in cupboards and televisions tucked behind sofas.

Wreckage: The Mercedes after it smashed at high speed into the wall of the Alma Tunnel 

2pm UK Time/ 3pm Paris

A witness to the Paris crash, a tourist from Normandy named Francois Levistre, gives a statement to police. He was driving through the Tunnel when in his mirror he saw a car surrounded by motorbikes. 'As I was about to start to climb out of the tunnel, I could distinctly see one motorbike cut across the front of the car. There was a large white flash. I did not notice a bang. I saw the car zigzagging.

'I carried on driving until I was outside the tunnel, where I stopped to collect my thoughts. I realised that something serious had happened, and that the car had had an accident. I thought it might have been an assassination attempt or a gangland hit.'

Singer George Mi chael, who was a friend of Diana, releases a statement: 'I truly believe that some souls are too special, too beautiful to be kept from heaven.'

4pm

Word has spread about the books of condolence at St James's Palace. The queue now stretches halfway up the Mall. Some people who have brought flowers to place by Diana's coffin walk away when told that they will only be able to sign a book of condolence. Others have brought sleeping bags in case they have to stay the night.

Those at the front of the queue have to walk through a metal detector to join a shorter queue in the palace's 100ft Lower Corridor. There is some surprise that the book is in fact five separate ringbinders of black-edged paper. Some mourners sit at the desks and write half a page, others just 'God Bless.' One seven-year-old boy writes: 'I think you were a good princess'. Royal Correspondent Jennie Bond has begged her bosses to be let out of the studio to report on the mood on the streets. Her taxi pulls up alongside the queue outside St James's Palac e and Jennie walks up to a bearded middle-aged man. 'Hello, how long have you been waiting?'

He bursts into tears.

Outside the main door at Mohamed Al Fayed's Harrods store is a book of condolence, with a doorman standing guard. There are flowers on the pavement close by. One card reads: 'Thank you Dodi for making our princess happy again.'

5pm

Charles Spencer is in the church of St Mary the Virgin, Great Brington, near his Althorp seat, inspecting the Spencer chapel. Beneath it is the vault where every member of his family has been buried since 1522.

Diana told her family she wanted to be buried, and it's expected her body will be interred at St Mary's on Saturday in a private ceremony after the Abbey service.

With the Earl is the Rev David MacPherson who is concerned his c hurch will become a shrine in the coming months: the visitors' book is already full of messages. He feels St Mary's won't be able to cope with the attention — it hasn't a car park or even a toilet.

'I suspect we will become a place of pilgrimage and, frankly, I wonder if it will ever end,' he'd told a journalist earlier in the day.

10pm

Trevor Rees-Jones's estranged wife Sue is on a flight home to London at Jill Rees-Jones's suggestion. The doctors had advised the family that Trevor has to be brought back 'to the real world'. If Sue remained in the hospital when Trevor regained consciousness and had forgotten their impending divorce, he may become distressed and confused.

11pm

Scores of people are arriving at Kensington Palace with torches, candles, sleeping bags and food, ready for an all-night v igil.

The flowers are now 20ft back from the gates. In among the bouquets are teddy bears, photographs of Diana cut out of magazines, and Queen of Hearts playing cards. Someone has left a 1995 bottle of Burgundy.

Outside St James's Palace the wait to sign the book of condolence is now seven hours.

Tuesday, September 2, 9am

Harrods unveils a window dedicated to the memories of Diana and Dodi. Black and white pictures of the couple are on wooden stands in a window full of black silk, white lilies and ivy.

Still no flag: As dozens gather outside the palace, four days after her death, the absence of a flag continues to raise concern

10am

All the official buildings in London have a Union flag at half-mast. There is no flag on Buckingham Palace. Inside the p alace, the daily meeting in the Chinese Drawing Room to discuss the funeral is beginning. It is suggested that the crowd should start the funeral behind barriers and then as the coffin passes they join in behind the cortege.

Representatives from the Metropolitan Police squash this idea; the size of the crowds in the past 24 hours outside the royal palaces suggest as many as a million people may be in London on Saturday. An idea that large screens are set up along the route so people can watch the television footage is given a warm welcome. The BBC already has screens in Hyde Park for Proms in the Park.

Camilla Parker Bowles is in her house in Wiltshire. She and Prince Charles have been talking on the phone many times each day.

Camilla has cancelled all engagements for this week. She knows she must keep a low profile as in recent months the British public's reaction to her relationshi p with Prince Charles has been mostly hostile.

Since Diana's death, Camilla has received hate mail and death threats. Outside her house, two policemen are standing guard.

The sea of sadness: Thousands of bouquets were left in honour of Diana by mourners outside her London home, Kensington Palace. The shrine was also filled with letters, cards, teddy bears and balloons. It was an unprecedented populist tribute that stunned the British Establishment and obliged the Royal Family to share their own grief with the devastated nation 

11am, UK time/ Midday, Paris

At Buckingham Palace the discussion about the funeral arrangements has moved on to the role of the Royal Family. An aide from the Spencer family makes suggestions about William and Harry's role.

Suddenly there is a loud voice on the speakerphone from Balmoral. I t is an angry Prince Philip. 'Stop telling us what to do with these boys! They've lost their mother! You're talking about them as if they are commodities! Have you got any idea what they are going through?'

No one in Buckingham Palace had realised the Prince had been listening to their discussions.

Within minutes of the crash, Paris deputy public prosecutor Maud Coujard had arrived at the scene and ordered a criminal investigation. Now at the Palais de Justice in Paris, six photographers and a dispatch rider arrested in the Alma tunnel stand in front of the examining magistrate, Hervé Stéphan.

The court hears that they are to be charged for failing to render assistance to persons in danger (under what is known as a 'Good Samaritan' law) which is an imprisonable offence in France. The men face a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

The ir lawyers declare that they are being made scapegoats: 'Our defence is that there is no offence. It is only the exceptional nature of the victims that explains this show trial.'

At the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital Trevor Rees-Jones is still unconscious. His mother is talking gently to her son: 'There's been an accident. You're in Paris. You're in a hospital. You're going to be all right.'

The doctors want to operate on Trevor's face but the swelling is too great and a chest infection has given him a high temperature. They have asked Jill and Ernie for photographs of Trevor before the accident to help them reconstruct his face.

Family and friends back home in Shropshire are hurriedly searching for good pictures to send to Paris.

Moving scenes: On the eve of Diana's funeral, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh inspect the floral tr ibutes outside Buckingham Palace

Midday

The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr George Carey is talking on the phone to Charles Spencer. The archbishop had been alarmed when told that the earl would be giving the address at the funeral; he believes only the clergy should speak on such an occasion.

Dr Carey suggests he speaks about 'the Christian message of hope and life evermore in God'. Charles Spencer listens politely and says nothing. The archbishop has a feeling that Diana's brother already knows exactly what he wants to say.

A sign goes up on the gates of Westminster Abbey: 'The Abbey is closed to visitors to permit preparations for the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales.'

Inside, scaffolders and television outside broadcast crews rig camera platforms and lighting gantries.

The Ab bey choristers have been urgently recalled from their summer holidays. Some are having to fly back from as far away as Canada and Brazil.

Upset: Dubbed 'The People's Princess', dozens camped out on the eve of her funeral to ensure they could pay their respects 

Sleeping out: Mourners outside Westminster Abbey on Friday, September 5 1997, on the eve of the Princess' funeral 

Finally: On the day of Princess Di's funeral, the palace erected a Union Jack in her honour 

1pm

The Royal Family last appeared in public two days ago when they went to church near Balmoral.

Apart from brief statements from her Press officers there has been little response from the Queen and there are growing calls for the family to return to London.

The family has focused thei r attention on the welfare of William and Harry. Princess Anne has been taking them for walks and rides on the estate with her children Peter and Zara; Prince Charles has dug out old photo albums to share memories with his sons, and the boys' former nanny, Tiggy Legge-Bourke, is on her way to Balmoral to help comfort them.

Royal biographer Anthony Holden (whose phrase 'the People's Princess' was borrowed yesterday by the Prime Minister) is standing in front of Buckingham Palace being interviewed live for a U.S. television breakfast show.

He is explaining why there is no flag at half-mast on top of Buckingham Palace because the Royal Standard only flies when the Queen is in residence and she is in Balmoral.

Holden declares he is unconvinced it's the right thing to do and the people around him agree, and start to urge him to speak out on their behalf. In his ear, he hears the U .S. producer say: 'This is great, do it! Do it!'

2pm

At Kensington Palace the flowers are waist-high and extend 30ft from the gates. The number of books of condolence at St James's Palace has increased to 11; the queue is five abreast in places.

5pm UK time/ 6pm Paris

In Paris, five of the paparazzi arrested after the crash are released on bail without security, but photographers Romuald Rat and Christian Martinez, who had argued with each other at the scene, are released on bail of 100,000 francs (£10,000) and told to surrender their cameras.

At the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital, Trevor Rees-Jones is now stable enough to undergo facial surgery in two days' time. Perhaps soon he will be able to shed some light on what happened in the Alma Tunnel in the early hours of Sunday morning.    

:: Jonathan Mayo is the author of Titanic: Minute By Minute and D-Day: Minute By Minute (Short Books, both £8.99). To order copies for £7.19 (valid until August 26, 2017), visit mailbookshop.co.uk or call 0844 571 0640. P&P is free on orders over £15.

 

 

Source: Why aren't they flying a flag at half mast? It was first raised by an American TV show - and soon the question was sweeping the restive crowds at Buckingham Palace

Delorean Aerospace DR-7 Flying Car

Dubbed the DR-7, it's the brain child of DeLorean Aerospace, founded in 2012 by Paul DeLorean. It has two sets of wings, a pair up front and another at the back, plus some winglets underneath. Two large ducted fans, mounted along the center line, front and back, swivel from horizontal for takeoff, to vertical for forward flight. The aircraft is nearly 20 feet long and 18.5 feet wide, but the wings do a clever Transformers-style hinge and pivot to tuck in against the side, so it can squeeze into a large garage. Propulsion is all electric, and DeLorean aims to make the craft self-flying, so anyone can use it, no special license required. The Los Angeles area company is still in the R&D phase, but has already built two scale models. The first one was just 30 inches long, to prove the physics works. The next was an engineering model, one-third scale. "We are moving forward on a full-size, piloted prototype which will carry two passengers and is designed to operate, fully elect ric, for a range of 120 miles," says DeLorean.

Via wired

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Source: Delorean Aerospace DR-7 Flying Car

Great Scott! A DeLorean flying car may actually happen

The DeLorean DMC-12 is a cult classic and an icon, despite a short life for the car itself. Its appearance in "Back To The Future" cemented its legacy. Unlike the movie car, real DMC-12s couldn't fly despite its gullwing doors. Soon, a DeLorean could take to the sky.

Paul DeLorean, the nephew of John DeLorean, revealed to Digital Trends that his company, DeLorean Aerospace, is preparing its own flying car. Well, it's not really a car since it can't drive on surface roads, but it doesn't look like a regular plane. The DeLorean DR-7 instead takes inspiration from Formula One race cars and is propelled by 360-degree thrust-vectoring electric ducted fans.

According to Paul DeLorean, the vehicle is designed for minimal input from a driver, but a manual mode is present for the "performance flying enthusiast." The electric-ducted fan units can either let the flying vehicle hover or move it forward at speeds up to 240 mph. An all-electric range of 120 miles is estimated by the company, but final specifications are far from ready.

DeLorean doesn't want this project to simply be a toy for the rich and famous, though. He wants the DR-7 to be affordable. 

"We aren't targeting only general aviation customers; we see much broader market potential, extending into other transportation segments," he said. "Our target price point will reflect that, ultimately. However, we have not established our launch pricing yet."

If investments and engineering go according to plan, DeLorean will reveal a prototype next year. After that, it remains to be seen if DeLorean can truly take off this time.

Source: Great Scott! A DeLorean flying car may actually happen

DeLorean Is Actually Making A Flying Car

by Martin Bigg4,333 reads

It had to happen eventually.

Think of DeLorean, and you immediately think of the time-travelling DMC-12 from Back to the Future. When the sequel was released in 1989, it predicted that flying cars would roam the skies in 2015. Well, that evidently didn't happen, but companies such as Toyota, Uber, Geely and Airbus are working to make flying cars a reality. Now, nearly 30 years after Back to the Future II, DeLorean is joining the race to build a real life flying car. The project is being developed by Paul DeLorean, founder of DeLorean Aerospace in 2012. He also happens to be the nephew of John DeLorean, who created the ill-fated DMC-12 sports car. The idea probably seemed far-fetched in 1989, but advancements in technology mean that we could see flying cars become a reality sooner rather than later. Uber, for example, is planning to launch its flying car project in Dubai and Dallas in 2020. According to Wired, DeLorean has finished designing its first two-seat flying car called the DR-7 and has built two scale models. The aircraft features two sets of wings positioned in front and behind the pilot and passenger. Power is provided by two large ducted fans mounted along the center line.

The fan can tilt either horizontally allowing the vehicle to take-off and land, or vertically for forward flight. Its propulsion is all-electric, and you won't need a special license to fly one. The current scale model is 20 feet long and 18.5 feet wide, but the wings can tuck in against the side so that the vehicle can fit inside a garage. DeLorean plans to build a full-size, radio-controlled prototype in the next 12 months before testing a piloted prototype capable of carrying two passengers. For the final aircraft, DeLorean is aiming for a range of 120 miles, a cruising speed of 150 mph and a top speed of 240 mph.

That may sound ambitious considering that Airbus' Vahana project will have a range of 50 miles designed for short commutes, but DeLorean promises that the DR-7 will be capable of flying at higher altitudes and more efficiently than its competitors. Of course, how DeLorean, and indeed other manufacturers, will overcome safety concerns and air-traffic control regulations still remains to be seen.

Source: DeLorean Is Actually Making A Flying Car

DeLorean Aerospace's Flying Car Will Unfortunately Not Travel Through Time

The stainless steel DeLorean, for all intents and purposes, was a failure. But the flying DeLorean time machine version from Back to the Future? Now those would sell.  

Lucky for you, a real deal DeLorean flying car is being made as we speak, though not of the four-wheels and gull-wing doors variety.

Paul DeLorean, who founded DeLorean Aerospace in 2012, is in the R&D phase of a two-seat vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicle called the DR-7. And yes, he is the nephew of John DeLorean, founder of the original DeLorean Motor Company.

"We are moving forward on a full-size, piloted prototype which will carry two passengers and is designed to operate, fully electric, for a range of 120 miles," says DeLorean. That's optimistic, as Wired points out, with similar projects shooting for 25-50 miles.

DeLorean only has two scale models under his belt, but is hoping to produce the full-sized prototype within a year. It will be 20-feet-long and feature a wingspan of 18.5-feet, with the ability to retract them for storage. The takeoff involves "an industry-first centerline twin vectoring propulsion system" which rotates not unlike the Back to the Future model.

While we may not have our money on DeLorean to break into the flying car market first, it would be one hell of a comeback.

Source: DeLorean Aerospace's Flying Car Will Unfortunately Not Travel Through Time

There’s Now A DeLorean Flying Car!

The recent announcement by DeLorean Aerospace that it's developing what many are referring to as a "flying car" has garnered a lot of attention. For starters, yes, it's that "DeLorean." The start-up aviation company is run by a nephew of the infamous car maker John DeLorean whose cool gull-wing-door speedster starred in the mega hit Back to the Future. It was in that film, you might remember, that the famous DeLorean time machine car doesn't really need any stinking roads, to mix our movie metaphors.

Courtesy of DeLorean Aerospace

The DeLorean flying car, called the DR-7, and it won't need roads either. Good thing. It doesn't have wheels or tires. In fact, the company is talking about it not as a car at all but an airplane that can do what cars do only in the air, kind of like, we don't know, an airplane? It won't be just any flying airplane, though. The DeLorean features a pair of ducted fans, one in front and one in back of its all-composite airframe and a pair of tiny wings including a canard that the company says makes the craft stall resistant. A Wired magazine writer pointed out have the advantage of having wings that the DR-7 would be able to glide in case of power failure. Any guesses on the glide ratio here?

The company hasn't put a timetable on certification or production dates yet, but experts quoted by that same Wired article offer that such flying airplanes could be plying the busy airspace over I-95 as soon as five years from now.

Learn more at DeLorean Aerospace.

Source: There's Now A DeLorean Flying Car!

Delorean's next car is a flying one

According to the report, the DR-7 has four wings and a pair of winglets, while you'll find a fan jet up front and 'round back. The two fans will tilt, much like the Harrier and Osprey, from a horizontal orientation for take off and landing, through to vertical for flight. So far, DeLorean has built a dummy model that measures 30 feet long and 18.5 feet wide, although plans to have it fold down enough to fit in a large garage.

DeLorean intends to realize his dream of creating an autonomous, battery-powered craft with a range of 120 miles. That outrageous range is, he claims, because he plans to cruise at higher altitudes than other flying car projects. DeLorean expects to have a working prototype by the end of next year, and will conduct unmanned test-flights shortly afterward.

What DeLorean, or anyone else for that matter, has failed to explain is how exactly all of this is going to work in practice. For instance, what sort of air traffic control setup will be required to ensure mid-air collisions don't become commonplace? If a car has engine failure on a highway, that's a problem, but what happens if your VTOL craft conks out in a built-up area?

Not that those questions necessarily need to be answered just yet, after all, there's still all the Doc Brown gags to do in the next decade.

Source: Delorean's next car is a flying one

Silicon Valley vs Elon Musk: The Debate On Flying Cars

Human civilization has step on almost all natural terrains. From the vacuum of outer space to the very common muddy roads on Earth; man has put his foot on every spot. While cutting-edge technology has helped us do the unimaginable, there has been a lot of skepticism around its impact too. A lot of that doubt has sprung from pragmatism and a rational thought process. A recent addition to the list of the technologies that faces skepticism is the concept of 'flying cars'. As bizarre as it may sound, flying cars are a real venture that have gone past the stage of mere thesis or blueprints.

All there is know about the concept of Flying Cars

As urbanization and globalization is on the rise, it becomes of utmost importance to fight the nuisance of a growing population, roads reeking of smoke and places small enough to asphyxiate everyone in and around there. Conditions like these and worse, call for innovation and development that might have been considered to be implausible at some point of time.

Flying cars are not a recent concept. The attempts date back to the 18th century. Close to 80 patents have been filed at the United States Patent and Trademark Office for multiple kinds of flying cars. Flying cars are also known as Personal Air Vehicles (PAV) or 'roadable aircrafts'. The first noticeable flying car, Curtiss Autoplane was unveiled in 1917. Glenn Curtiss, who can righteously be called the father of flying cars, designed his Autoplane to have 3 wings and a four-bladed propeller at the rear-end of the car.

While the Autoplane never made a significant flight, it was an exemplary model for the concept to take flight. Arrowbile in 1937, Airphibian in 1946 and the Aerocar by Moulton "Molt" Taylor are some of the most famous milestones that 'flying cars' have crossed till date. These vehicles do not involve any massive or inconceivable infrastructure. Most of them consist of three main components: a passenger pod, a VTOL (vertical take-off and land) air-unit comprising of rotors and commuication systems, and a wheeled land-unit. The passenger pod is designed to dock with the air-unit and/ or the land-unit as and when required. Both the air and the land units can be controlled autonomously via constant communication with the central traffic controlling and route managing system. These flying cars can be run by either using combustion motors or electric modules depending on the design and technology used in them.

Powered by high-end communication systems, these vehicles have garnered a lot of attention over the last few decades. While striking the right balance between the weight of the car and the technology incorporated in the cars is one aspect that the engineers are trying to fix, there are several other speculations that revolve around these vehicles as of now. Technology savants from the Silicon Valley highly justify the growth of 'flying cars' as a concept. However, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk isn't placing his bets on the technology.

Silicon Valley takes on Flying Cars

More than a dozen companies in Silicon Valley are investing in flying vehicles. Both large and small companies are spending in creating competitive flying cars that might or might not succeed depending on the viability of the technology. Most companies plan to launch their most feasible prototypes and products by 2018 or so. 

Kitty Hawk, a small company operating in Google's X Lab is backed by Larry Page. It is trying to be one of the first out of the gate and plans on establishing its vehicle in the market, by the end of 2017. The German company eVolo made a huge announcement in April, 2017 that it plans to use its VTOL-enabled aircraft, Volocopter 2X, for a pilot taxi service in 2018.

In addition to these, the air-vehicle manufacturing giant, Airbus has also started building a single-person VTOL under its Silicon Valley arm A³ as part of its Project Vahana. As per the CEO Rodin Lyasoff, the full-size prototype shall be ready by the end of 2017. With 8 rotors, the ability to achieve an altitude of about 1,000 feet and autonomous tech like RADAR and LIDAR integrated into the vehicle, the manufacturing giant has a lot to pitch in for. Airbus is also designing a flying taxi-system, called CityAirbus, that would feature multiple propellers. IT would resemble a small drone and the entire system could be accessed by the public via an app.

Big and small players are investing alike…

While there are several other major players banking on the concept of flying cars, Uber has upped its game and is creating the most recent buzz-wave around the concept. The taxi-service company plans to join hands with other manufacturers to leverage the VTOL technology for building a network of flying-cars for city commutes. A Bloomberg report stated that Uber has hired a veteran NASA engineer, Mark Moore who has published a White Paper on VTOL.

In addition to these big-corporate-spangled attempts to develop the technology, some other efforts are also worth noticing. Massachusetts-based Terrafugia claims that it will release a full-size unmanned prototype of its concept car 'TF-X' by 2018. In July, 2013, Terrafugia had showcased its "roadable aircraft", Transition at the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) AirVenture event in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

What Elon Musk has to say…

The concept of 'flying cars' boasts of intelligent 'sense-and avoid' avionics, advanced and reliable electronic systems, impressive computer-aided design, and application of principles from materials science. This has lead to a few safety authorities being tantalized to the extent that they might give the green to these vehicles any time soon.

However, Elon Musk's viewpoint on flying cars appears to be contradictory. Musk believes that the idea is not scalable and is not the most apt solution to our traffic and roadway concerns. Besides calling it ineffective, he also deems it to be highly dangerous. To quote Musk directly, he says, "If somebody doesn't maintain their flying car, it could drop a hubcap and guillotine you. Your anxiety level will not decrease as a result of things that weigh a lot buzzing around your head."

In his appearance at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit in 2014, he expressed his concern over how flying cars could congest the skyline of all major cities. In addition to that, he sounded skeptical about the amount of noise and air pollution the flying cars can cause in the upper layers of the atmosphere.

The biggest problem the billionaire visionary sees with flying cars is: Gravity. He swears by the laws of Physics and reasons with the fact that any flying car will need to generate a lot of downward force to keep it up in the sky. That implies a lot of wind and noise disturbance for those on the ground in addition to the debris from midair fender-benders. Having stated all the concerns, it is evident that Elon Musk would not advocate the concept of flying cars.

While Silicon Valley claims that the age of flying cars is here to stay and prevail, some others, including Elon Musk have divergent viewpoints. While the debate may never end, the growth of the technology can be analyzed by monitoring the increase in number of players dealing in the market. If flying cars can fix the prevalent traffic problems or not, will be speculative until then.

Source: Silicon Valley vs Elon Musk: The Debate On Flying Cars