Gizmodo: pipe dreams

NASA Sponsoring $2M Flying Car Contest; Time Machine Contest Coming Next

Adam Frucci — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 11:45:25 EDT

Despite the skepticism that justly confronts any mention of a "flying car," what with the disaster that expecting people who can barely drive a car to learn to fly a personal plane would be, NASA seems pretty optimistic about the idea. In fact, they're holding a $2 million contest to entice people to design flying cars. And this isn't just an exercise, either; NASA really expects up to 45% of travel to be done by flying cars (or PAVs, Personal Air Vehicles) in the future.

Near all-weather STOL [short take-off and landing] PAVs will be able to transport people to within just a few miles of their doorstep destination at trip speeds three to four times faster than airlines or cars. NASA predicts that up to 45% of all miles traveled in the future may be in PAVs. This will relieve congestion at metropolitan hub airports and the freeways that surround them, reduce the need to build new highways and save much of the 6.8 billion gallons of fuel wasted in surface gridlock each year.

This sounds nice and all, but I'm still pretty sure regular people won't be able to fly mini-airplanes well enough for this to be any kind of safe alternative to driving. [Danger Room]

Researchers in India Say They Can Build a Laptop for $10

Charlie White — Fri, 11 May 2007 10:26:51 EDT

Those industrious Indians are so smart. To hell with that one laptop per child (OLPC, pictured above) project whose notebook price started at $100 and now costs upwards of $175 and climbing—Indian researchers say they can bring one in for a fraction of that cost, a mere $10 for a fully-functioning laptop PC. The idea is floating around the halls of Indian government agencies, and supporting the project is state-sponsored integrated circuit design and manufacturer Semiconductor Complex.

There are a couple of design proposals on the table from engineering hopefuls, but it's just a whole lot of talk thus far, much of which is predicated on upbeat predictions of manufacturing and distribution techniques bringing costs down to that rock-bottom $10 level. Sure, the laptop will be loaded with free open-source Linux software, but unless that semiconductor manufacturer tosses in all the hardware for free, too, this $10 laptop malarkey goes directly into the "insert miracle here" file. – Charlie White

A $10 Laptop? [Coolest Gadgets]

Two Grandpas Building a Flying Car in their Garage

Adam Frucci — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 18:20:00 EDT

Face it, people. Flying cars are science fiction, and no matter how badly you want to be Marty McFly the closest thing you're ever gonna get to a flying car is a tiny airplane. But hey, the basic tenants of logic don't stop people from chasing the dream, and who are we to judge?

Vernon Porter and Clarence Kissell are hard at work on their own flying automobile in their backyard shop in Texas . Seeing that these enterprising engineers are 72 and 70 respectively, they've got more motivation than the average dreamer to get their car off the ground before they're six feet beneath it. Will it take to the skies? Well, not to be a cynic, but I'd be very surprised. But don't let that stop you, Vern and Clarence! Prove my cold, jaded heart wrong! –Adam Frucci

Dallas News [via Gadget Lab]