Daily Auto News Pentagon Seeks Flying Cars
Daily Auto News
The Pentagon wants a flying car. It’s willing to pay, with money set aside to fund research, in a project called “Transformer.” We’re not making that up.
Edmunds Inside Line reports, “The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) research group will host a workshop on January 14 to familiarize companies with and start brainstorming ideas for the program.” DARPA says “he objective of the Transformer (TX) program is to demonstrate a one-to-four-person transportation vehicle that can drive and fly.”
They’re not just looking for a way around (or over) Washington’s ever-increasing traffic. The agency says the project should enable “the warfighter to avoid water, difficult terrain, and road obstructions as well as IED and ambush threats,” according to USA Today. “The vehicle will be capable of driving on prepared surface and light off-road conditions, while flight functionality will require Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL).
Autoblog notes, “Flying cars have been developed before, all with some level of compromise. Even now, there’s the Moller SkyCar, and the Terrafugia Transition; both are nearing feasible production, albeit with large, six-figure price tags.” But, in the past, those companies have worked with scarce funding from venture capitalists. It is possible that Defense Department backing could kick-start a round of better-funded research and development.
DARPA, after all, was the source of the earliest funding that developed the Internet. Whether they can manage to put George Jetson’s car in every garage is an open question.
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