George Jetson flies a family car.  Every morning he dispatches his family to their various destinations, and once at work, George neatly folds the family transport vehicle into a briefcase.

Is this where our transportation innovations are taking us?

You may have heard of the car that flies, Terafugia.

Or what about the car that scuba dives, sQuba.

And just the other day someone sent me an article about a dune-buggy/paraglider called SkyCar.

I wanna know.  Is this just marketing buzz, or do these examples represent real, viable transportation solutions?

Ooops!  I forgot Richard Branson’s Necker Nymph!

On paper these eclectic transport concepts look legit.  So legit that right now you can, for example, put down a refundable deposit for SkyCar (delivery promised end of 2010).

So I’m calling all aviators, divers, gliders, drivers and engineers, and hey, why not Richard Branson, to help me understand:

A)    Are these George Jetsony concepts safe?
B)    Will regular folks (not just James Bond fanatics) really buy and use them?
C)    What’s next in the world of unexpected transportation solutions?

Merci!

Kate