Monday, July 5, 2010

For Better Air Travel

(photo www.flickr.com/photos/colleen-lane/4517840289/ the Lane Team)

We're heavy into the summer travel season. Most folks I know around here are traveling by car, and those traveling by plane dread it. Air travel, once so glamorous, is now cumbersome, inconvenient, and expensive. From long lines to charging for baggage and TSA confiscating hair mousse, air travel is for the birds!
(photo www.flickr.com/photos/jimmybrown/4041963981/ by jumpinjimmyjava)

What form of travel would be an improvement? Convenient, personal, fast? Inexpensive would be good. I've long dreamed of the Jetson's jetpacks, but they don't seem to be immediately forthcoming. But how about a flying car? You could pack it up, get in with the family, and go! This is not as far-fetched as you think, according to this MSNBC news story.
(photo www.flickr.com/photos/torley/3457764257/ by Torley)

This story brought to mind wonderful fictional flying cars! Who could forget Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond novels and inventor of unusual imaginary gadets? Or more recently, the flying car in the Harry Potter books? Can you think of others? What other modes of travel would you like to try?

Up, up, and away!
(photo flickr.com/photos/wavyday/3707298272/ Jack Ringer)

7 comments:

  1. Thanks for the comment, Linda. Can you think of any other stories with flying cars?

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  2. I love the old cartoons from "The Jetsons" era--always wondered what it would be like to fly up to a fast food space station (we ALMOST have that now)! I could really use a flying smart car.

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  3. I'm going with the Jetsons rigs too. That always seemed like such fun. Star Trek had some pretty good modes of transportation too. How about Stuart Little? He got around pretty well in a toy car, right?

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  4. Love the idea, Jane--a car you could hop into, say where you wanted to go, and it would drive you there. Which reminds me a bit of "My Mother, the Car" :)

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  5. Good memory, Roxane. Yes, Stuart Little did a lot of tooling around in his toy car, and let's not forget Ralph and his motorcycle in The Mouse and the Motorcycle.

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