And now, a flying car

You may soon be able to think of the possibility (if not plan as yet) of going to office maybe a hundred to 150km away in 10 to 15 minutes. The keyword here is 'think' and not 'dream' because if automobile engineers are to be believed, flying cars may soon become a reality.

One may then, like the members of the Jetsons family, hop into a tiny Jetson-like vehicle and zoom through the skies to land at your office, shopping mall or wherever you want.

Consider this - you are stuck in a traffic jam and want to get home fast, which most of us want to do in any case. The flying car is very well designed to do that. It can elevate and move out from the jammed area.

US-based Moller International has been designing a flying car, called 'Autovolantor', based on a Ferrari 599 GTB model that costs £200,000. The company says the flying car would be in the market in just two years.

According to Bruce Calkins, the chief designer of the car at Moller, the flying car will have the ability to take off vertically and hover in the air powered by eight powerful thrusters which push air down for take off. The vents then tilt back so the car can fly forward. The flying car is expected to be able to attain a speed of 100 mph (150 km/hr) on the ground and 150 mph (200 km/hr) in the air. It can run for 75 miles (130) in the air while on the ground it can run for 150 miles (200kms).

Moller says the flying car features a specially designed hybrid fuel and electric system to power the thrusters, creating as much as 800 brake horse power, and it would be able to cruise at altitudes of up to 5,000 ft.