I
have lived in interesting times, at least from the point of view of
technological developments. I grew up in the "wonder years",
before color television and during the space race. I am still is
awe of the Apollo Spare Missions and old enough to know what they were!
There were technological promises galore, we would all have computers,
mobile phones, homes in the sky, holidays on the Moon, international
travel by rocket and
levitating cars....hover cars . The braver would commute with jet
packs, few dared to predict anti-gravity devices and it is still a
prediction that is daring, to say the least. Some of us would also have
personal nukes!
So, what did we get ? We got computers by the
landfill load ! We got pocket personal communicators and now most of us
live in pokey ,dispirited, sky appartments. But, Where Is My Hovercar ?
I
like to browse the library at the Hargrave Engineering Library at
Monash University. The basement houses a large bound periodical
collection. In this rich assortment I found bound copies of
Jane's Defence Weekly from 1959. There were some interesting
advertisements from defence contract suppliers that suggested that a
sort of hover car did in fact exist. I cannot imagine that they were
very driveable or stable.
was there really a hover-car in 1959 ?
was there really a hover-car in 1959 ?
I think gyro copters were shown to be a bad idea, from 1959
I
think the missile on the right is on display outside the Melbourne
Point Cook RAAF Base Air Museum. This advertisement is also from 1959. I recall seeing something similar.