Good news, utopia fans! While the food pills, flying wing shaped aerial hotels and silver togas remain stubbornly out of reach, the flying car has taken a triumphant step forward, thanks to a UK company. Even better, it's a bio-fuelled flying car, proving that the future is, in fact, good for the environment.
Even better, the current version of the SkyCar is based around a dune buggy, second only to the quad bike as the favourite futuristic vehicle of 1970s science fiction. It's road legal, can go from 0-100 in 4.5 seconds, has a range of 400 kilometres, can reach 180 kilometres an hour and in three minutes you can turn it into a plane. A rotor at the back of the SkyCar provides power whilst a flexible para foil or "ParaWing" can be deployed by the driver and allows the SkyCar to reach speeds of up to 100mph in the air.
Before you start worrying about the admittedly horrifying prospect of high altitude multi-storey pile-ups or novice drivers leaving the car in the office instead of at the office, the SkyCar is remarkably safe to fly. There's no pitch control so it won't stall or dive and if the engine cuts out, the ParaWing lets it glide down to the ground. There's even an onboard ballistic parachute if the wing fails.
At time of writing, the SkyCar is less than 24 hours away from its official launch, as a team from ParaJet will set off on a 6000 mile trip through France, Spain, Morocco, the Western Sahara, Mauritania and Malie to Tombouctou before returning through Senegal and we wish them the best of luck. Plus, now flying cars are well under way, we await the announcement of the world's first flying wing hotel. You know it makes sense.
This article contributed by Alasdair Stuart, of Hub magazine . For more information visit the official SkyCar site .
