What you see above could help you to escape from big traffic jams in the future. It’s a plug-In hybrid flying car from Terrafugia, the makers of the Transition car-airplane. It will be called the TF-X and the team is currently conducting a feasibility study for the carplane (or whatever you want to call it).

Not many details are currently available for the TF-X, which will improve on the Transition’s basic design. Terrafugia is only saying that it’s a four seater, and will feature fly-by-wire controls and “the state-of-the-art in intelligent systems”. It will also be capable of Vertical Take-Off and Landing like a helicopter. And of course you can drive it like a car, although it’s expected to be more like an airplane than automobile.

The TF-X is not going to come out of its animated land anytime soon. The Transition itself is not expected to hit production this year. And of course you will need big pockets if you are planning to fly around in either of them. The Transition’s price tag is $279,000. That’s if they ever become a real product, which is a really big IF.

Check out the video below followed by a gallery showing computer-generated images of the TF-X.

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It’s called the Aerofex hover vehicle and it’s very much a real thing. It may not be quite as sleek and compact as its science fiction counterpart, but it is able to travel while flying a few inches off the ground. It does this by using a pair of ducted rotors, generating vertical lift. The interesting thing is that the design for this hover vehicle dates back to the 1960s, but it was abandoned due to stability issues. Aerofex fixed this with two knee-level control bars, relying on the pilot’s natural sense of balance to lean from side to side.

The advantage of being above the ground is obvious enough. If you have wheels, you need to have roads. If you’re going off-road, you need suitable tires and you could easily get stuck. By hovering inches above the ground, this vehicle is able to travel just about anywhere, regardless of the quality of existence of roads. The manned version has already been tested at up to 15 feet in the air and at speeds of up to 30 mph. It can probably go higher and faster, but they’ve limited themselves for safety reasons.

Unfortunately, Aerofex has no immediate ambitions to build and sell a commercially-available manned version. Instead, they’re looking at unmanned drones for agricultural, industrial and military applications. I guess we’ll have to find another way to get around Endor for now.

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You are absolutely going to stand out like a sore thumb as you pull out of your garage and drive around the neighborhood, but that’s totally worth it. It also looks like you’re going to have some relatively poor visibility toward the sides and the rear, but that’s why the retractable side mirrors stand out so much. The cabin is airplane-esque, but you do get what appears to be a relatively normal steering wheel.

The wings fold out when it’s time to take to the skies and the vehicle can run on regular high octane unleaded fuel; no need for jet fuel here. The price has been set at $300,000 with a $10,000 deposit required to secure one.

George Jetson, will we see you soon?

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Raise your hand if you used to secretly wish flying cars were a reality when watching movies like Back to the Future, Fifth Element, or even the TV show, the Jetsons. Not only does the idea of flying across roads just sound cool as hell, it actually is starting to become more and more practical in a world that is quickly becoming over-congested with very limited space for cars, trucks, and other roadway transportation.

While we might have just thought about the idea of a flying car, Paul Moller has dedicated the better part of his life trying to make the dream a reality. He has gone through many major prototypes over the years, with one of the most publicly promoted models being the M400X Skycar.

Moller has more than once in the past decade and a half promised that one of its models would arrive commercially in a matter of a few years or less. Unfortunately his ‘vaporware’ status has kind of made it hard for companies, investors, and even consumers to take his ideas very seriously.

After failing to carry out his most recent 2008 promise to have Skycars in the hands of consumers, Moller International largely disappeared and little has been heard from them since. This is all changing as the company has pioneered 2 new models, the 200 LS and the 100 LS.

Th 200LS promises tandem seating for 2 people, occupies 119 sq ft and has a gross weight of 1,320 pounds. The craft itself is powered by a 170HP engine and can reach parachute safe height in just 11.3 seconds. The vehicle is actually fairly fuel efficient too, at 42mpg with a one-time ride ability distance of 434 miles.

The second new “skycar” is the 100 LS. This little guy is built for just one person, though it has the same engine output, though it weighs in at just 800 pounds. Thanks to its smaller design it actually manages to reach parachute safe height in just 10 seconds.

So what makes these things any different from just a regular old plane? Form factor for one, but for another these types of vehicles are known as ‘volantors’ and are capable of vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL). This means you don’t need a traditional amount of runway space, making them ideal for city use (at least in theory).

Before you rip out your wallet and run to your nearest Moller International Auto Dealer, keep in mind these aren’t commercially offered at this time. Will they eventually come to the market though? Considering Moller’s past reputation, I wouldn’t hold my breathe for their arrival. Even if these do eventually manage to make it to the market they would likely be in limited production for at least several years and, judging on past cost estimates from other models, would likely have a price close to $500,000 or more.

While I admire Paul’s commitment to the dream of flying cars the reality is that, at least for now, they remain just a dream and nothing more.

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The European Union is going to set aside €4.2 million ($6.2M USD) for a project known as myCopter. This is a Personal Aerial Vehicle (PAV) that would try to reduce the traffic congestion in major European cities. The flying car would be used at low altitudes to travel to and from work. As myCopter would be flying below 2000 feet, it wouldn’t bother other air traffic, and would be fully or partially autonomous so you wouldn’t need ground-based air traffic control. The project is being undertaken by a consortium that includes the Max Plank Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Germany.

It sounds like the aerocar the Jetsons used, but more than likely annoying security and parking issues that many Brits face today. There’s already a lack of spaces for parked cars in Europe, let alone flying ones. Since this flying car wouldn’t fold into a suitcase like on the Jetsons cartoon, they’d have to set up a deal where people could land on the rooftops of their work. Currently the myCopter is a gas guzzler, which isn’t too friendly to the air, but the group hopes that eventually, the flying car could be electric.

The group plans to use unmanned aerial vehicles to demonstrate the flying car’s automation technologies, including obstacle avoidance, path planning and formation flying. Though maybe it would be better to develop a more efficient transportation system to get people out of their cars. In Hamburg, Germany, one of the least-congested cities in Europe, buses and trains coordinate their timetables to get people to hop on instead of drive. Some cities in Europe, like London, charge people to drive through congestion zones during certain hours of the day. It remains to be seen if adding more traffic to the air instead of the ground is an effective solution to reducing congestion, instead of a chaotic and expensive way to get people to work.

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