Why not water?
Convective thought after a somewhat weird day:

Cars were designed to look like buggies at first. There has always been a strong tendency for cars to resemble the horse itself, whether designers were trying for the effect or not. Through the '50s cars tried HARD to look like airplanes. Modern sedans look like mice.

Why not boats? A few custom 'speedsters' in the 20s were intentionally boatlike on the back, but no car has EVER tried for the complete shape of a rowboat or dory. (The Amphicar went the other way, trying to make a boat look like a car.)

Polistra is checking out the idea:



Works rather well. The result is appropriately sized and proportioned for normal driving. Even if it's not built to be amphibious, it's a pretty shape.



The wheels would be mounted on struts, with sealed electric motors in the hubs. In the water, the struts hinge up so the wheels become fenders in the nautical sense. The propeller is a similar strut plus motor, steerable when extended.

If you live in a city like Wichita or Detroit** with a recreational river and lots of ramps leading down to the river, you could use the river as a shortcut.

Why do we STILL focus so heavily on the overcrowded airspace as a supposed relief from the overcrowded land roads?

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**Especially! Why didn't Detroiters think of this? Lots of neighborhoods have garages in front and boatramps in back.



The car execs and car designers spent a lot of time partying on boats, and several of the major designers retired early and switched to planning yachts. They were constantly ... immersed ... in aquatic thinking along with alcoholic thinking. Why did they keep trying to make non-functional car-planes instead of usable car-boats?

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Later: Unsurprisingly a Russian inventor got there first. Similar appearance, similar idea, including the wheels on struts.

Labels: Alternate universe

  ¶ 12:06 AM