Where Are All The Flying Cars?

Will our childhood fantasies of a car that can become airborne with the touch of a button ever come to light? Here, Hannah Dowling tries to find answers

FROM Back to the Future and Blade Runner in the ’80s, to The Fifth Element and Harry Potter in the ’90s and ’00s, science fiction has long seen us somewhat fascinated with the concept of flying cars. Hell, even The Jetsons has us envisioning a future in which every man and his dog would zoom about in a car that takes to the air as easily as it takes to the road. So, what happened to the dream, and will we ever see it come to fruition? 

The history of flying cars 

Of course, the concept of a vehicle that can both drive along a road and fly through the skies was not just invented in pop culture or science fiction. Even before the Wright Brothers took to the skies for the first time in 1903 – not even 20 years after the first motor-powered car was invented – humans have strived to create a drivable vehicle that can also fly.