We can never live in the “future” if there aren’t flying cars. Everything futuristic has flying cars; even cartoons set in the future like the Jetsons have flying cars. But where are they? When will they be as common as in The Fifth Element? There is some good news on the horizon: Forget the Taycan, Porsche is building a flying sports car.

We know that flying taxis are on the horizon. The City of Los Angeles wants drone-type taxis ready for the 2024 Olympics to be held there. Without blasting Olympic spectators from one venue to the next above the gridlocked freeways no one is going anywhere. Now comes word that Porsche and Boeing are jointly working on a flying sports car.

“This could mean moving into the third dimension of travel”

They have even supplied an artist’s concept of what it might look like. “Porsche is looking to enhance its scope as a sports car manufacturer by becoming a leading brand for premium mobility. In the longer term, this could mean moving into the third dimension of travel,” Porsche executive board member Detlev von Platen said in a statement to Reuters.

Last fall they announced a “memorandum of understanding to explore the premium urban air mobility market and the extension of urban traffic into airspace.” That sounds both futuristic and sexy. “Urban traffic in the sky.” It has a nice ring to it. The two companies want to blaze the trail for premium mobility. They are looking into how challenging and marketable a stab into the “third dimension of travel” would be.

Accessible flying sports cars at least in LA, they would be as common as cellphones

I’ll give them a hint: here in Los Angeles those that can afford helicoptering from one place to another within the LA metropolis already do it. They pay dearly for the service. So it’s already happening in a very constipated form. With less complicated, more accessible flying sports cars at least in LA, they would be as common as a cellphone. 

One of their main ideas is to develop an all-electric flying sports car that can vertically take off and land; or e-VTOL. That’s what they are developing right now. We just hope it doesn’t look like some of the vertical takeoff aircraft we’ve seen that look like crop sprayers in the sky. This thing has to look sexy which brings us to the accompanying image included with the press release.

If the finished product could be this integrated and car-like the skies would be exciting

Yes, that looks compelling enough to fly. And drive. If the finished product could be this integrated and car-like the skies would be exciting. This rather than some of the previous attempts that look more like flying airplanes eliminates the simple riveted body. Instead, it is more like current helicopters with a monocoque body. Flowing and shining like a car is what we want to see. 

Looking wider than it is long we don’t know who compatible it would be with today’s roads. If the wings are swept back or sunk into the body after landing like those expandible motorhomes then this configuration makes sense. But we shouldn’t get too picky here. Let’s hope that the flying sports car as a common form of transportation takes flight soon because even remote towns are seeing congestion during rush hour. It’s something almost no city can get away from. Just as the car changed mankind forever so too would a Porsche flying sports car.