From Sam Howison
I don’t like the sound of the flying cars
(“I’m just flying down to the supermarket”, 29 May, p 24).
Is it remotely likely that the safety and
maintenance systems needed to keep aircraft flying would not be necessary for
flying cars? And in a mass market, would they be enforced?
What about noise intrusion, which is much greater from an engine in the sky
than from one on the ground? At 8 kilometres a litre, what about air pollution?
And with a price tag of $60 000, the idea that they can replace cars in
the developing world is pie in the sky: a million of them would pay for
$50 billion of roads and bridges—and leave $10 billion over
to buy ordinary cars with.
I think that flying cars will just be another way for the rich to make life
less pleasant and more dangerous for the rest of us.
Oxford
