Eastward Bound wrote:
I remember watching on Discovery channel the possibilities of giving
the common people minature aircraft that are extreamly simple to fly.

Is such a thing even in the drawing board? A whole metropolis that
has no massive freeways. Just parking lots for the aircraft at the
shopping malls and such. Landing pads everywhere for most all
aircraft takes off and lands virticaly. All aircraft controlled
electronicaly by an advanced type of autopilot. All you have to do is
type in your destination and the aircraft takes off so long as it's
sensors don't show that it's either too low on fuel or certain fluids
and that everything is in working condition.

Does that sound whimsical to you?

'round about 1488 someone called Leonardo da Vinci had some whimsical
thoughts about flying machines....

http://www.visi.com/~reuteler/vinci/fly2.jpg