[extropy-chat] thank evolution for the interstate highway system

[BillK]

On Tue Dec 02, 2003 09:08 am Spike wrote:
> If it does fly, it's worth twice that, nay three times.
> There are plenty of yahoos around here that have money
> to blow their noses on, $3E6 wouldn't even slow
> them down.
>

Popular Science have published a review
'Best of What's New 2003'
<http://www.popsci.com/popsci/bown/2003/homepage/0,18882,,00.html>

In the Aviation section they mention the Bell Agusta 609

Vertical takeoff, high-speed cruising: This is the ideal, and
potentially profitable, vision for air commuting. Which is why two
leading helicopter builders--Texas-based Bell and Agusta of
Italy--carried out a long-awaited first hovering flight of the
tilt-rotor BA609 in March. The little brother of the Pentagon’s
controversial, expensive, formerly crash-prone and now improved V-22
Osprey, the BA609 takes off straight up, rotates its engines forward,
then flies like a plane--twice as fast as a helicopter. It is scheduled
to enter service in 2007, a mere 52 years after Bell flew its first
experimental tilt-rotor in 1955.

<http://www.bellagusta.com/html/theAircraft/ba_609/>

Sounds more practical than the Moller Skycar.

BillK

PS. All the other sections are worth a read also!