Any Day Now: America's 70-Year Streak of Swearing the Flying Car Was Almost Here

The flying car is the most reliably broken promise in American technological history. More durable than the paperless office. More persistent than the meal replacement pill. It has survived recessions, world wars, the invention of the internet, and approximately forty-seven startup failures without losing a single ounce of its optimistic momentum.

Somewhere, right now, a press release is being drafted. It will describe a vehicle. The vehicle will fly. It will be available to consumers very soon. The company behind it will not exist in five years.

This is a love letter to that promise. And a gently mocking one.

A Note on Our Counter

Each entry below includes a "Years Since This Promise" counter, calculated from the date of the original claim to the time of writing. We also include a brief update on the company or individual in question, rated on a scale from "Still Trying" to "Pivoted to Drones" to "What Company?"

1. Popular Mechanics, Cover Story, 1951

"Your New Car — It Flies!" Years Since This Promise: 73

Popular Mechanics has the distinguished honor of being the most optimistic magazine in American publishing history, a title it has defended with remarkable consistency. In 1951, readers were informed that personal air travel was essentially an engineering formality — a few tweaks away from the showroom floor.

The cover featured an illustration of a smiling family in a winged automobile, apparently cruising above a suburb with the casual confidence of people who had never considered air traffic control.

Update: Popular Mechanics is still publishing. The flying car remains unavailable at your local dealership.

2. The Aerocar, Moulton Taylor, 1956

"The Car That Converts to a Plane in Five Minutes" Years Since This Promise: 68

Moulton Taylor was a genuine engineer who built a genuine flying car — the Aerocar — that genuinely flew. This is more than most entries on this list can claim, so full credit there. Taylor shopped the Aerocar to Ford, who considered a production run of 25,000 units before market research suggested Americans weren't ready.

Ford passed. The Aerocar never went to market. Six prototypes were built. One is in a museum in Washington state.

Update: Moulton Taylor died in 1995. The Aerocar is still in the museum. Ford is currently trying to figure out electric trucks.

3. Every Single Popular Mechanics Cover, 1957–1973

Years Since Various Promises: 51–67

We're bundling these because individually cataloging them would require a separate website. Suffice to say that between 1957 and 1973, the flying car appeared on or in Popular Mechanics with a frequency that suggested the editors had a bet going.

Update: See entry #1.

4. The Moller Skycar, Paul Moller, 1989–2009

"The Personal Vertical Takeoff Vehicle Is Ready" Years Since First Major Promise: 35

Paul Moller is a Canadian-American engineer who spent approximately four decades and an estimated $100 million developing the Skycar, a four-passenger flying vehicle that looked like something from a mid-budget science fiction film and was described as perpetually "almost ready for commercial production."

The Skycar flew — briefly, tethered, at low altitude — in 2003. The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Moller with fraud in 2003, alleging he had misled investors. He settled without admitting wrongdoing.

Update: The Moller Skycar program wound down. The website persisted for years afterward, which is somehow the most 21st-century ending possible.

5. Terrafugia Transition, 2006

"Street-Legal Airplane, Available Soon" Years Since This Promise: 18

Terrafugia was founded by MIT graduates, which lent the whole enterprise a credibility that previous flying car ventures had somewhat lacked. The Transition — a two-seat, folding-wing vehicle that could drive on roads and take off from small airfields — was genuinely functional and received FAA exemptions to operate at a higher weight than standard light aircraft.

It was going to retail for around $194,000. Deliveries were projected for 2011. Then 2012. Then later.

Update: Terrafugia was acquired by Volvo-owned Geely in 2017. As of the most recent available reporting, the Transition has still not entered mass production. Geely has not issued a press release about this.

6. Uber Elevate, 2016

"Urban Air Taxis by 2023" Years Since This Promise: 8

Uber, a company that was at the time struggling to turn a profit moving people around on the ground, announced in 2016 that it would launch a network of electric flying taxis over major US cities. The project was called Uber Elevate. It had a white paper. It had concept videos. It had a timeline.

Uber sold the Elevate division to Joby Aviation in 2020, shortly before Uber stopped losing money on it.

Update: Joby Aviation is still working on air taxis. They have not launched over Dallas as originally envisioned. Uber now focuses on the ground, where the roads remain stubbornly horizontal.

7. Alef Aeronautics, 2023

"We Have FAA Approval. Flying Cars Are Real Now." Years Since This Promise: 1

In 2023, a startup called Alef Aeronautics announced it had received a Special Airworthiness Certificate from the FAA for its Model A flying car — a legitimate milestone that generated enormous press coverage. The vehicle is electric, can drive on roads, and can take off vertically.

It is expected to retail for $300,000. The company had, at time of announcement, taken deposits for future delivery.

Update: Alef Aeronautics is still operating. We genuinely hope they succeed. We are also keeping the counter running, because we've been doing this since 1951 and old habits die hard.

So Why Does the Promise Keep Flying?

The flying car's immortality as a cultural prediction isn't really about engineering. It's about a specifically American strain of optimism — the belief that of course the future should look like the Jetsons, and that the only thing standing between us and personal air travel is a little more time and a slightly larger Series B funding round.

Every generation deserves its own flying car promise. It's practically a constitutional right at this point.

We'll check back in five years. We always do.

Counter status: Still running.