Why Flying Cars Never Took Off
Since the early 19th Century, artists, philosophers and citizens alike have dreamed of flying in carriage or automobile-like apparatuses out of the chaos of the city streets below, speeding to their destination from city to city, country to country, continent to continent, sea to shining sea. Yet still, to this day, this dream has never been fully realized.
Many hours have been spent pontificating, theorizing, and developing various machines to achieve this goal but no one has been able to bring one to the masses. There are probably a number of reasons why many an inventor and engineer failed, but we’ll explore the one that I think is most important:
Flying cars are fucking stupid.
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
— Henry Ford (maybe)
It’s up for debate whether Henry Ford actually said that quote, but there’s lots of evidence that it rings true. People have been asking for literal car shaped vehicles that fly in the air for decades now. They might as well have been asking for flying horses. Quick aside: If you don’t believe TV has had any negative effects on society ask yourself, why is a generation of adults who grew up watching the Jetsons asking for cartoon spec technology?
“We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters.”
The simple reason why flying cars never made it to the market despite many tries (75 patents and counting), is that those inventors actually tried to put wings on a car, fly it, and then somehow try and mass produce it. Sounds too stupid to be true? Here’s the AeroCar created by inventor Moulton Taylor in the 1950’s:
Don’t you just love all that loose, removable mechanical machinery on a flying vehicle? There are relationships on the rocks over Ikea instructions. Most people, myself included, don’t know how to change a tire. That’s not innovation that’s a lawsuit waiting to happen. Though to be fair, its not dumber than the nuclear fission concept cars from the same period, or as Founder’s Fund put it ‘audacious to the point of idiocy’.
But, think about it for a second. We already have airplanes that can transport people thousands of miles anywhere in the world in less than a few days. We already have helicopters that are well suited for quicker, shorter flights with less room needed for takeoff. Hell even a hovercraft has its practical uses. However, all those vehicles are well suited for their domain of flying.
A car with wings does absolutely none of those things well.
It has more in common with this car:
Now you might think I’m cynical but I’m actually really optimistic about these flying mobiles. A number of companies have started to move away from strapping wings to Ferrari’s and dune buggies and actually creating passenger vehicles that offer a substantially different flying experience than what exists.
The most interesting for me are the passenger heli- and quadcopters, let’s call them ‘Copters’ for now. (Reporters keep calling them flying cars the same way cars used to be called horseless carriages. Its funny how things change and yet remain the same.) These vehicles are larger-scale versions of drones that offer a more passenger friendly design. Here’s a short video of one them:
When you think about it that’s much closer to what people have been asking for all this time. Not literal flying cars but a comfortable, affordable, and more convenient way to fly short distances while avoiding a frustrating drive through congested city streets.
While there’s probably still a lot to be done in terms of cost reduction, energy efficiency, regulation and air safety (you can’t have the same idiots who play Pokemon Go or put on their makeup during rush hour fly hundreds of feet in the air over busy schoolyards and streets) its amazing to see a fantasy the average Joe has harped about for years creep closer to being a practical reality.
And, there’s a really valuable lesson for founders here:
DO NOT MAKE THE EXACT THING THAT PEOPLE IMAGINE.
Your customers are dreamers, not scientists, engineers, or designers.
Think about the problem on a deeper level. Think about whether it makes basic sense. Reason from first principles. Test it. Fail fast. Figure out if you’re the one who can solve it. Whatever you do, don’t be like these guys:
Thanks for reading and if you want to see some funny historic predictions on things that actually did end up being invented take a read through this article about the vision of the year 2000 in the early 1900’s:
