Unveiled: Burt Rutan's Final Creation Is A Flying Car

820 MPG!?! Am I reading this right?

820 miles a tank. It doesnt say how big the tank is.

Nope, you are not reading that right. You got me all excited though. 820 miles per TANK, not per gallon. And they don't specify the tank size. It sure looks aerodynamic though.

I want one NOW please.

If only they could produce it inexpensively, and get it to fly itself. Then it would be a truly awesome invention.

Otherwise, a kind of silly toy. Anyone who can afford it could just as easily by a cheaper, better plane and rent/buy a better car wherever they land.
But millionaires will be millionaires...

Will McDonalds be prepared to handle this in the drive through? Oh my gosh! Worlds collide! SPILT HOT COFFEE EVERYWHERE!

Unless the car comes with an escort truck and a "wide load" sign you ain't driving it anywhere. With the fixed wings it looks like it would take up the whole road and then some in most places. Of course, it would be a waste of time to drive it anyway when you can FLY instead. That's like putting thousand dollar caviar on your $0.99 cent McDonald's Hamburger. Just another completely impractical, and probably astronomically priced toy. Hint: If you can afford this thing then you can afford a real car that actually fits on the road...in a single lane...and drives faster/better than this does.

We have seen some really bad flying car designs on these pages, but this one really takes the cake. You actually have to get out, disconnect the wings, stow them behind the driver and passenger, then switch sides. Sheesh.

Designs from the 50's had the wings on a trailer. Not much of an improvement on those.

Roadable aircraft are not flying cars. If you have to drive to the airport anyway, you might as well drive your car, fly in a plane, and rent a car when you get there. Just like grampa did.

It's not the future, till we have flying cars.

I've never been sure why there's all of the hype for a flying car.

Small aircraft have a lot of trouble with bad weather -- mainly because they're small aircraft --"If you've got time to spare go by air."

Also, how many airborne vehicles are tolerable? Managing any major increase in the numbers would be a nightmare.

Although it might be self limiting -- between lack of ability and lack of effort, there will probably not be that many (wait for it ) auto pilots.

This particular example might be hot tech, but it's probably less useful than a Segway :)

This reminds me of the time Larry and I tried to get a robot to fly. We took the antigravs off the loader in the warehouse and welded them onto its hands and feet. Pretty funny seeing it waving it's arms and legs like that and saying "whoaaaaaaaaaa error 401 whoaaaa error 401". Luckily, we were long gone before it accidentally got sucked into the wind turbine. It was a shame ... that turbine was expensive.

That is not a Flying car. That is a drivable plane.

Thats awful. He usually did amazing things. At least interesting things. I would think he retired because he lost interest, going by this.

First off, flying cars have existed since the early twentieth century (SPOILER ALERT: They're called airplanes). Secondly, the closest a car should come to being airborne is a freeway overpass (save the landspeeder concept for the Star Wars buffs; but those would be hovercraft).

For those unfamiliar with the modern concept of "flying cars" (or rather driveable aircraft for less archaic terms) the purpose of this device would be to drive this design on roads to a local airport or nearby landing strip (The size of the twin-boom fuselage is probably about the same size of as an SUV or a Dodge/Ford Pick-up.

Once at the departure field, detachable wings would be installed (in a quick and painless fashion) allowing the transformed aircraft to be ready for airside airfield operations.

Technology like this is innovated for aircraft owners because owning an aircraft can be very expensive. Other than the fact that they have to be maintained, you have to pay hangar rental fees for keeping an aircraft at an airport (much like paying rent for a home you don't own; I imagine owning a hangar would cost a bit more).

With a driveable aircraft you could purchase the vehicle like an automobile and drive it home instead of leaving it at the airport and spending money on hangar fees. You need work done on it, you can take it to the airport and have your automobile and aircraft servicing needs taken care of.

This technology has the potential to make the traditional aircraft and automobile obsolete by combining the designs of the two into one, for one efficient mode of private and public transportation.

Just saw the photos. This thing isn't even big enough to be a truck. It wouldn't have trouble fitting on any highway or back road [Coming soon: The Off-roadable Driveable Plane (ODP) j/k, lol]

35 miles on batteries alone in car mode and it can fly.
GM and Toyota better watch out I'd rather have one of these then a Volt or Prius.

I just think it's impressive this thing has enough engine power to become airborne without the assistance of propellers or turbojets.