Ever since I was a kid there have been certain things that I take for granted. I assume, for example, that I will one day fly inexpensively to a space station, and from there I will be able to fly to the moon. I saw it in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, and I can see no reason why a science fiction movie would be wrong:

Domed cities and good-tasting, calorie-free ice cream fall into the same category. And of course flying cars. It just makes sense that we would fly to work as depicted in the Jetsons.

But now The Economist is dashing the flying car dream upon the rocks of reality:

Flights of fancy

The subtitle is even more dismal: “Why airborne automobiles will never take off”. And then there is this:

In the meantime, a little more than a year after having started it, NASA quietly dropped its personal air vehicle programme. The whole idea was deemed too far-fetched. The dream lives on only in the minds of enthusiasts as something that one day might become a reality.

Your correspondent is not so sure. He recalls, for instance, the way Pan-Am, once America’s dominant airline, was taking deposits in the 1960s for trips to the moon. Half a century on, he is still waiting for his lunar excursion.

There are at least four reasons why motorists are unlikely ever to take to the skies…

So, according to the article, this car isn’t going to happen:

Nor this:

Nor this:

Nor this:

Nor this:

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