NASA PAV Challenge
Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 11:03 pm
Saw this on the "other" forum. NASA wants to give away $250,000.
http://cafefoundation.org/v2/pav_pavchallenge.php
http://cafefoundation.org/v2/pav_pavchallenge.php
Sounds like vaporware to me. An idealistic Jetson-esque "vision" of the future that is a hell of a lot farther from being realized -- if it ever is -- than 2020. For those that didn't check it out, NASA envisions, once again, the solution to overcrowded roads and the myriad drawbacks of commercial flight in its latest iteration of the flying car fantasy.
I don't think aeronautical engineering types have been stalling on developing the (four seat, 150 mph, 75 mpg, as quiet as a car and as easy to fly as the car is to drive) airplane because of the absence of a paltry 250k prize. I think if the technology we have today were sufficiently advanced to produce such a beast, we would have already done it.
I favor the nationwide, computer controlled, single-occupancy trebuchet network myself. We'll just fling ourselves to our destinations.