D. Patrick Caldwell on The Joys of Flight

When I was a kid (no, I mean physically), I remember everybody talking about the day when everybody would be flying around in flying cars. I said then and I say now, "impossible!" Of course, by impossible, I mean "highly improbable."

So, why does a lifetime early adopter of technology believe there won't be flying cars? Well, I do believe there will be flying cars and indeed, Terrafugia has one that functions a lot better than some of the older experimental flying cars. I just don't think everybody will be flying them.

The thing is, I drive with a pretty good representative sample of everyone and I thank my lucky stars I don't have to share the air with them. I believe that the technological infrastructure required to keep everyone from flying into each other will be cost prohibitive until the roads simply cannot support the traffic we have.

Now, I know what some of you are thinking, "but Patrick, it takes me two hours to drive the 7 miles to work in the morning." It is true that there are some places, like Atlanta, where it can take you two hours to drive 7 miles. Well, I believe that it is considerably cheaper for traffic to expand outward before it expands upward.

At the point that the surface of the earth is so covered with roads that there's simply not enough room for people to drive anymore, the Earth will probably be unlivable. But, if the planet is still life supporting, then I definitely can see that traffic will expand upward; however, I think it's more likely that they'll just build roads on top of roads.

So, the flying car is a neat novelty, but in the lifetime of our planet, I doubt it will become commonplace.

Have fun. Be safe. Happy Piloting.