Posted by Stevedave1984 at h24-86-116-66.ed.shawcable.net on June 16, 2002 at 17:38:36:
Check it out...
Taken from http://www.nypost.com/business/50253.htm
June 13, 2002 --
Toyota thinks cars of tomorrow will be airborne machines - and has already designed one in a top-secret project.
The new Toyota flying machine will cost about the same amount as the carmaker's vaunted Lexus luxury car - around $50,000 - and will be as simple to fly as driving a car.
Except in places like New York and Los Angeles.
The lightweight aircraft, which was tested in skies above the Mojave Desert two weeks ago, brought raves from Toyota's brass in Tokyo.
But the true test of Toyota's future craft may be found in the skies above the road-rage wracked Long Island Expressway and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
Besides triggering an air traffic nightmare, the Toyota machine could spell the end of hamburger drive-ins and lovers' lane interludes, and forever change the American lifestyle built around motoring.
Experts said the Toyota aircraft would be registered as an airplane, and drivers would have to earn flying licenses to operate them.
Where the Toyota craft would be parked or gassed up before a trip with the kids is uncertain because small private airports are disappearing rapidly from the countryside.
Toyota in the U.S. had no comment on the closely guarded project. Toyota's car designers and engineers from its Los Angeles office worked with the legendary aircraft designer Burt Rutan to come up with the Toyota model, according to industry reports.
Rutan called the airborne Toyota "the aeronautical equivalent of the Lexus LS400."
Rutan is also designing a new concept vehicle for General Motors' car of tomorrow, which rides at high speed on the ground and doesn't fly.
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Hurray :)