the abbreviated reign of “neon” leon spinks

OCCASIONALLY LOOK UP 227
year research project got under way using the combined resources of
NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the private National
Consortium for Aviation Mobility. The purpose of the Small Aircraft
Transportation Systems, or SATS, project: to demonstrate that, by using
the approximately 3,400 small airports around the country, “there could
be a future safe and affordable travel alternative to driving by auto or fl ying
on commercial airlines.” Most Americans live within twenty miles of
one of those airports, the SATS researchers claim, and they envision a
decentralized air- transportation system that relies more on computerguided
“air taxis” than on scheduled high-volume commercial carriers
flying into regional hubs. One concept under discussion, according to a
NASA researcher, is navigational technology that would make air taxis
and flying cars behave more like a horse—a creature that instinctively
avoids other objects and may even know how to find its way home.
In June 2005, the SATS researchers culminated their research by
inviting aviation entrepreneurs and enthusiasts, business executives, congressional
leaders, state and local economic development offi cials, and
members of key science and aviation agencies to Danville, Virginia, for a
weekend celebration of possibilities called “SATS 2005: A Transformation
in Air Travel.” There, today’s most avid proponents of the dream
conjured tantalizing evidence that a fl ying-car future is fi nally within
reach. They were not dissuaded by Mark Moore, head of the Personal Air
Vehicle Division of the Vehicle Systems Program at NASA’s Langley Research
Center in Hampton, Virginia, who cautioned that anything “remotely
Jetsons-like” is at least twenty-five years away.
Even that seems hopelessly optimistic. Fixated on the technological
challenges, the culture hasn’t even begun to grapple with the many
other issues that would arise if cars began to fly—pollution, noise, energy
efficiency. In a litigious society where neighbors sue one another about
barking dogs, imagine the problems that gale-force wind wash from a
hovering Skycar might cause along Main Street USA. In an age when full
Internet access is as close as your cell phone, when computers seamlessly