The Inevitable Flying Car (USA Today)

You may have noticed a certain paleo-futurist quoted in yesterday's USA Today:

Matt Novak, however, remains unconvinced. The host of Paleofuture.com, a blog that looks at past predictions of the future, says flying cars look even further away these days.

"We had this sort of optimism in the '50s and '60s, a feeling that things were inevitable because of technology. And flying cars were on the short list," Novak says. "I don't think we're going to have freeways in the sky any time soon."

Read More:
What the future didn't bring
New Hampshire Public Radio (Jan, 2008)
Paleo-Future in the Wall Street Journal
Streamlined Cars of the Future

The Family Plane of 2030 A.D. (1930)

The June 15, 1930 Fresno Bee (Fresno, CA) published a piece about the year 2030 as envisioned by F.E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead. Super-airplanes, synthetic food, eugenics and a 16-hour work week are just a few of his predictions. An excerpt about transportation from the piece appears below. Bibliodyssey has a great collection of illustrations by E. McKnight Kauffer, which were used in Smith's book, The World in 2030 A.D.

In speaking of the "family" plane, a development conceded by almost everyone, Birkenhead adds that it will mean the relegating of the automobile to a most minor place in the field of transportation.

"By 2030," he says, "motor cars will probably have passed their zenith of popularity. A century later they will only be used for shopping, picnics and the amusement of youth. They will, in fact, sink to the level now occupied by the bicycle."

We may look forward then, it is to be supposed, to having our grandchildren tour the more out-of-the-way parts of the world and marvel at the "quaint" people who still chug here and there in automobiles even as we now smile at Bermuda where bicycles and horse-drawn buggies are the only forms of transportation allowed.

See also:
Sky Toboggan (1935)
Cyclonic Rocket (circa 1930)

Personal Helicopter (1943)

This 1943 rendering of a personal helicopter by Alex S. Tremulis appears in the book Yesterday's Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future by Joseph J. Corn and Brian Horrigan. The caption from the book is below.

This concept for a high-speed personal helicopter was an early expression of what would become in the years immediately after World War II an extremely popular vision of the future. To many observers, the helicopter seemed to promise wings for city dwellers who might land atop their apartments or office buildings. Unfortunately, helicopters were - and remain - difficult to fly, relatively unsafe, noisy, and energy inefficient.

See also:
Commuter Helicopter (1947)
Transportation in 2000 A.D. (1966)
Vision (Clip 2, 1993)
Nazi Paleo-Futurism (1941)
Year 2000 Time Capsule (1958)
New York in 1960 (1935)
Closer Than We Think! Throw-Away Clothes (1959)
Automobiles Without Wheels (1958)

Mean Automakers Dash Nation's Hope For Flying Cars

The Onion has this hilarious video depicting automakers frustrated by an anchorman who won't take "no" for an answer.


Mean Automakers Dash Nation's Hope For Flying Cars

See also:
Yet Another Flying Car Company
The Jetsons Car We've Been Waiting For?
In 50 Years: Cars Flying Like Missiles! (Chicago Daily Tribune, 1959)
Where's My Jetpack? (2007)
Automobiles Without Wheels (1958)
Flying Car Patent (1991)

Yet Another Flying Car Company

The IsraGood blog points us to yet another company promising that ever-elusive flying car of the future. Urban Aeronautics claims that they will be producing the "X-Hawk" by early 2009.


It seems like an intelligent business plan to first introduce the vehicle for urban rescue and medical evacuation purposes but, even if it flies, the mass-market hurdles to such transportation options still exist.

See also:
The Jetsons Car We've Been Waiting For?
In 50 Years: Cars Flying Like Missiles! (Chicago Daily Tribune, 1959)
Where's My Jetpack? (2007)
Automobiles Without Wheels (1958)
Flying Car Patent (1991)

The Jetsons Car We've Been Waiting For?

Over at Moller International they take the idea of a flying car very seriously.

Moller's June 28, 2007 press release announced the start of production for their, "Jetsons-like M200G volantor, a small airborne two passenger saucer-shaped vehicle that is designed to take-off and land vertically." Further excerpts from the press release appear below along with video of what appears to be an earlier prototype.

CEO Paul Moller calls the M200G, “the ultimate off-road vehicle,” able to travel over any surface.

“It’s not a hovercraft, although its operation is just as easy,” he says. “You can speed over rocks, swampland, fences or log-infested waterways with ease because you’re not limited by the surface. The electronics keep the craft stabilized at no more than 10 feet altitude, which places the craft within ground effect where extra lift is obtained from operating near the ground. This lets you glide over terrain at 50 mph that would stop most other vehicles.”

While the company does not foresee the requirement for significant training or licensing to operate the vehicle, it is prepared to offer demonstration sessions in Davis, Calif., once the vehicle is ready for market.



See also:
In 50 Years: Cars Flying Like Missiles! (Chicago Daily Tribune, 1959)
Where's My Jetpack? (2007)
Automobiles Without Wheels (1958)
Flying Car Patent (1991)

Going to the Opera in the Year 2000 (1882)

This lithograph from 1882 depicts the fanciful world of 2000; flying buses, towering restaurants, and of course, 1880's French attire. Albert Robida is less well-known than Jules Verne but contributed just as much to the collective imagination through his amazing illustrations.

If you speak French I recommend picking up the Robida book La vie électrique. For the record, I don't speak French. Much like a child, I got it for the pictures.

(UPDATE: Some very good questions have been raised about the date of production for this lithograph. The year 1882 came from a Library of Congress source. La Vie Electrique (published 1892) contains structures that look similar to the Eiffel Tower but are in fact lighthouses. However, I am definitely open to the idea that "circa 1900" would be a more appropriate label.)







See also:
Postcards Show the Year 2000 (circa 1900)
Collier's Illustrated Future of 2001 (1901)
Predictions of a 14-Year-Old (Milwaukee Excelsior, 1901)
The Next Hundred Years (Milwaukee Herold und Seebote, 1901)
What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years (Ladies Home Journal, 1900)

Article for MungBeing

I wrote an article for the online magazine MungBeing which appears in the new issue. An excerpt appears below. You can read the entire article here.


There is a genuine sense of sadness detectable when you talk with people about flying cars and meal pills. Oddly enough, most people don't want meals-in-a-pill, they simply want the fanciful. We long for the world where anything is possible. We exist in a rather unique age when most American's basic necessities are met. You and I have luxuries unseen in human history and yet we want more.

See also:
Postmodern Paleo-Future

Automobiles Without Wheels (1958)

The October 15, 1958 Lethbridge Herald (Lethbridge, Alberta) ran a story describing the transportation options of the future. Below are excerpts as well as the piece in its entirety.

The kind of automobile that futuristic artists have portrayed since the late 1920's and science fiction writers dream about may be closer than we think.

[The car of the future] may have no actual physical contact with the roadway when it travels or maybe just one wheel; electronic bumpers may surround it so that accidents at ultra-high speeds will be rare, power may come from a central source or perhaps through a ribbon in the pavement.

A hovering, helicopter-like vehicle is expected to become an actuality yet this year....



See also:
In 50 Years: Cars Flying Like Missiles! (Chicago Daily Tribune, 1959)
Disney's Magic Highway, U.S.A. (1958)

In 50 Years: Cars Flying Like Missiles! (Chicago Daily Tribune, 1959)

The Chicago Daily Tribune ran an article in their April 26, 1959 edition proclaiming, "In 50 Years: Cars Flying Like Missiles!" Below is an excerpt from the piece.

Can you imagine an autoist driving up to a "gas" station 50 years from now and receiving replacement energy capsules for his car instead of getting a tank full of liquid fuel?

Also, can you imagine flying automobiles directed by automatic guidance systems?

These were possibilities discussed last week by Dr. Andrew A. Kucher, Ford Motor company vice president in charge of engineering and research, in an address at Northwestern university.

See also:
Flying Car Patent (1991)

Collier's Illustrated Future of 2001 (1901)

[Update: The Paleo-Future blog has moved. You can read and comment on this entry here.]

Today we have a follow-up to Monday's post about Arthur Palm, the 14-year-old from Milwaukee, Wisconsin who in 1901 made predictions about what the world of 2001 might look like.

The editors of the book Yesterday's Future: The Twentieth Century Begins (Voices of the Wisconsin Past) suggest that Arthur Palm's article in his school newspaper was taking many ideas about the future from the image above, which was printed in Collier's Weekly on January 12, 1901.

This seems quite likely given the specific mention of a sign reading, "Old People Restored to Youth by Electricity, While You Wait." In the upper left corner we can see a sign in the Collier's illustration reading, "Youth Restored by Electricity While You Wait." Palm also mentioned a "Manhattan Air Line" which is visible on a sign in the Collier's illustration as well.

See also:
The Predictions of a 14 Year Old (Milwaukee Excelsior, 1901)

The Predictions of a 14-Year-Old (Milwaukee Excelsior, 1901)

In the year 1901 Arthur Palm, a fourteen-year-old student from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, published an article in his school newspaper (the Excelsior) describing the world of 2001. Below is an excerpt of his article as featured in the book Yesterday's Future: The Twentieth Century Begins (Voices of the Wisconsin Past).

"How it may appear a hundred years hence, when modern inventions have been carried to their highest point of development that even Edison would feel jealous of the great inventions in the year 2001. In the year 2001 you will see sky-scrapers sticking far above the clouds over 200 stories high. On the streets there will not be any room for street cars, so they will build lines way up in the air, and there will be landings fastened to the high skyscrapers, where the people will wait for the cars. The carlines will have different kinds of names and you will see the name "Manhattan Air Line" many hundreds of feet above the ground. You see air-ships and carriages fastened to balloons for the transportation of the people through the air, and you will often see collisions in the clouds. In one of the sky-scrapers on the 119 story you will see a sign, 'Old People Restored to Youth by Electricity, While You Wait.'"

The belief that electricity would eventually cure all ills was surprisingly common. I guess that's why I'm so amazed that people still receive electro-shock therapy. It seems so primitive and naive.

Flying Car Patent (1991)

An excerpt from the patent abstract:
"The combustion engine is also geared to vertically oriented ducted fans (40) and a horizontally oriented ducted fan or propeller (76) for providing the vehicle with the capability of travel through the air. Pressure jets (62), supplied with compressed air from a compressor (66) driven by the combustion engine, augment the lift of the ducted fans and provide steering for the vehicle."

You can see United States patent 5,141,173 here.

See also:
The Future World of Transportation 13 Feb 2007

A Hundred Years From Now. (New York Times, 1909)

"Mr. Bois believes that motor cars will in a hundred years be things of the past, and that a kind of flying bicycle will have been invented which will enable everybody to traverse the air at will, far from the earth. Pneumatic railways and flying cars and many other means of quick transit will be so developed that the question of time will enter but little into one's choice of a home."

If you have a TimeSelect subscription you can read the entire article here.

See also:
The Future World of Transportation 13 Feb 2007

Duck Dodgers in the 24th and 1/2 Century

The animated short film "Duck Dodgers in the 24th 1/2 Century" is classic Daffy Duck. Much like the Jetsons, this film presents a world of flying cars and ultra-modern design. In an odd way, by examining comedic films you're able to most accurately take the pulse of the nation. The world of 1953 was certainly obsessed with space travel.



Duck Dodgers was rated 4th in the 1994 list of the 50 greatest cartoons of all time.

Syd Mead

As a robot designer for Short Circuit, concept artist for Tron, a production illustrator for the first Star Trek movie and a "visual futurist" for Blade Runner, Syd Mead has contributed to the paleo-future through some amazing movies.

Flickrtarian Michael Heilemann recently posted a set of Syd Mead concept art. Be sure to check out the Paleo-Future Flickr group started by trixiebedlam.

Jetsons

I downloaded an episode of the first season of The Jetsons yesterday. It occurred to me that there is nothing more paleo-futuristic than the pneumatic tubes used to transport the characters. I can't wait until the world of transportation catches up to 1960s bank teller technology.

According to the Wikipedia post I linked to, (and who doesn't trust Wikipedia?), Jules Verne and Edward Bellamy both used pneumatic tubes in their 19th century novels. Flying cars, protein bars and pneumatic tubes are the dreams the paleo-future was built on.