I want my flying car!
The 1960's and 1970's held such promise for a future limited only by our imagination. Flying cars, nuclear powered aircraft and bases on the moon all seemed so close. Technologists were quick to promise that in only a few years all of these wonderful scientific advancements would become reality. Unfortunately reality turned out to be quite different. Here are four such predictions that have yet to be realized.
Flying cars
Often depicted in sci-fi movies such as Blade Runner, The Fifth Element and Back to the Future the flying car seems so tantalizingly close and yet so far away.
The issue with flying cars is simple. Any problems associated with ground based vehicles would become much more severe with their air based counterparts. Imagine police chases, drunk drivers, blown out motors, rear end collisions and joyriders except this time in the sky. Add to these issues the cost and implementation of flight/landing zones, training and registration of vehicles and it becomes a bureaucratic nightmare.
Several types of flying car already exist but don't expect the easy transition from car to plane. Most of them are essentially two seater converted planes that have some road capability. The majority of them are classified as planes so as a result they need to obey all aircraft flight laws. It simply isn't realistic to land a flying car in your neighborhood street and then park it in the garage.
Moon bases
Of all the future predictions that have gone awry this one seemed the most plausible and the one that fired the imagination. Just imagine a permanent settlement on another celestial body. 1969 saw the first person step foot on the moon and with that small step a world of opportunities opened up before us. Unfortunately these opportunities were never realized and 1972 saw the last time a human being would visit the moon. So why don't we have a base on the moon?
The first satellites, the first man into space and the first man on the moon can all be attributed to the cold war tension between the US and the Soviet Union. On the 4th of October 1957 the Soviet Union successfully launched the worlds first satellite into orbit and from this was born the space race. However with the breakup of the Soviet Union and the stalling of their space program the space-race came to a rather deflated end. No longer could either side justify spending billions of dollars when the cost outweighed the return.
Sadly this toy rocket is the closest this generation will get to the moon.
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Nuclear power
If you think back to some of the TV shows of the 1960's the future promised an unlimited supply of free energy from nuclear power. Sci-fi shows like Thunderbirds lead us to believe nuclear powered aircraft and cars were just around the corner. Sadly this was not to be.
The only aircraft that the US developed that carried a nuclear reactor was the experimental NB-36H. However the program was cancelled in 1958 as other alternatives such as ICBM's made the concept of a long range bomber obsolete. The Russians also developed but ultimately abandoned similar research. One of the difficulties in any nuclear powered aircraft is the weight of the reactor and shielding that would ultimately doom such projects.
Virtual reality
Virtual reality, the ultimate escape, the ultimate interface to the internet, into gaming, into TV into everything. That was the tag line when VR was first introduced. We all expected to be wearing goggles exploring a virtual world in 3D leaving our mundane lives behind. In some respects this has happened with virtual on-line communities and environments such as Second Life. However the reality of VR was that is was far easier and far cheaper to use a monitor, keyboard and mouse to interface to the internet. No one really wanted to wear heavy wraparound goggles with no viable user interface that gave you headaches after an hour. Sometimes reality can be far more reliable than what the imagination can dream up.
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