Flying Car

In article ,
Sylvain wrote:

a wrote:
How many airports have taxiways that provide immediate access to
roadways? Those we use have gates and getting them open, especially at
odd times, would not be easy.

How does it work these days when you drop in with an aircraft on a trailer?

The one time I showed up at a larger airport with an aircraft trailer
(albeit with the aircraft in the airport, and the goal being to get it
*out*...) we had to hunt down someone official-like, who then sat in his
truck watching us suspiciously while we took the thing apart and loaded
onto the trailer.

If we had had the misfortune of trying this when nobody official was
around, I think we would have simply been screwed.

For instance, a more practical way to fold / unfold wings than is available
with sailplanes (which more often than not require heavy lifting by several
very patient and skilled participants...); something that would make it
possible for one person to easily store into a trailer (to take home, or
park at the local airport far cheaper than in a hangar) and back to a
flyable condition, could be quite a neat thing.

Sailplane assembly isn't as bad as you make it sound. *Most* of the
time, it takes one reasonably strong guy who knows what he's doing and
one medium-strength guy who can follow directions, and the process of
putting the wings on just takes a few minutes. When you have a heavy
two-seater that nobody has assembled in a year then, yeah, heavy lifting
by several very patient and skilled participants is accurate. But that's
a small minority.

In addition, nice rigs can be obtained for a relatively small price
(relative to aviation, anyway, typically 1-2AMU) which allow a single
person to assemble relatively quickly. And yes, they are neat.

Something that would self-fold to trailering size at the push of a
button would be very nice. With the somewhat laxer weight and
aerodynamic constraints of a powered aircraft it seems that such a thing
might well be possible, and it would certainly save a lot on hangar fees.

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon