Floating cities and flying cars: travel of the future
Entry posted by anile ·
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Floating cities and flying cars: travel of the future
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In more of a hurry? In a decade or so you could be jetting to New York in an hour and taking off for your holiday to France in a flying car...So! Incredible..
Flying cars
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Flying cars have left the realm of science fiction. You could not only beat commuter traffic in one but also fly across the UK or on a European holiday. Parajet Skycar is billed as the world’s first bio-fuelled flying car. Once testing is complete this year, it will take its maiden flight from London across the Sahara to Timbuktu. Spawned from the microlight (lightweight, slow-flying small planes) concept, it has an enclosed cabin, room for two people (you’ll have to leave some of the family at home) and a maximum air speed of 100mph. After landing at a suitable site, you can fold down the wings, pop them in the boot and continue on to your destination by road.
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Airship cruises
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Think of a cruise ship. Now think of it floating above the ground at about hot-air balloon height. That is the concept behind the Manned Cloud aircraft, currently being developed by the French national aerospace body and a private design company. The elegant, whale-shaped airship is intended to accommodate 40 passengers, with an onboard restaurant, library, fitness suite, spa and sundeck at their disposal. With a leisurely cruising speed of 80mph, guests could also simply enjoy watching the landscape roll by beneath them.
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The cosmoplane
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The successor to Concorde could be the so-called cosmoplane. With a projected launch date of 2024, the craft, which is being developed in Russia, is intended to take off and land like a normal aeroplane. Once in the air, however, it will be more like a spacecraft, reaching an altitude of 125 miles and speeds of 20,000 miles an hour. The cosmoplane would take just 50 minutes to fly from Moscow to New York; weekend breaks in Cape Town and Mumbai could become the norm (assuming the cost of fuel hasn't become stratospheric). For its part, the US space agency, Nasa, has successfully tested a 5,000mph jet, the x-43A, which would allow you to fly from the UK to Australia in two hours.
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Tourist space flights
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Unlike the cosmoplane, tourist flights into orbit are already a reality. Space Adventures offers a seven to 10 day trip aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule or a 16-day stay complete with space walk. The $20 million (£14 million) fare, however, makes these holidays out of most people's league. But the company clearly has a market. For travellers who would find near-Earth orbit a little too close to home, it is planning a journey to the moon, costing $100 million.
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Space hotels
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A Russian team is also planning a space hotel. To make such a project financially viable, the thinking goes, all you need is a fleet of reusable commercial launch craft – which should appear on the horizon as space travel becomes more affordable. If it comes to fruition, the first space hotel will probably be a joint venture with research as well as commercial purposes. The entertainment on offer would include doing day-to-day things in zero gravity, such as flushing the toilet and taking a shower. And imagine the view from your room!
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Underwater hotels
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Dubai has scored again in the extravagance stakes. This time his highness General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, crown prince of Dubai, is building an underwater hotel, called Hydropolis, off his land on the Jumeirah coast. In addition to the 220 bubble-shaped suites there will be a submarine complex, a spa (of course!), restaurants, shops and, above sea level, a concert auditorium and ballroom with retractable roofs for open air events and coastal views.
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Hotel pods
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Hotel pods (as opposed to pod hotels, with their miniature rooms, which already exist) are conceived as accommodation raised on stilts that can be folded away and transported from place to place. "The technology is there," says Nadi Jahangiri, a partner in the London architects m3, which created the pod design. "Someone just has to pay to build it." The pods could stay in the same place for 15 years or for only two weeks, if set up for, say, a concert. With their stilts (making only a small mark on the ground) and pholtovoltaic cells, the pods are meant to be eco-friendly, although they do use disposable waste units.
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Ultra-budget hotels
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One kind of accommodation we might see more of now the recession has hit is the frills-free hotel. Rooms can be smaller than a prison cell and any extras – a phone, toiletries, a wardrobe, chair, TV or even a window – incur an extra charge. If you only use your hotel room to sleep in, you'll welcome the savings on the bill.
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Robot hotel staff
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Robots will feature heavily in hotels in the future, predicts Glen Heimstra of Futurist.com. Automated staff will check you in, clean your room and act as valets. Already robots such as a self-guided mop (the Scooba) and lawnmower (Robomow) perform basic tasks at some hotels in Britain. Military deliverbots, which are being developed to operate in battle zones, have potential in the hospitality industry for delivering room service, for example. The Da Vinci robot, which has been used in surgery at Guy’s and St Thomas’s hospitals in the UK, suggests more sophisticated uses. Ian Pearson, futurologist-in-residence at BT, says: "My guess is that we’ll have conscious machines before 2020." Whether they will want to work in hotels is another question. |
Floating cities
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Freedom Ship may sound like something out of Battlestar Galactica but that is the proposed name for a floating city that would continually circumnavigate the globe. Each district of the city would have a different architectural theme from around the world and would encompass everything from open-air markets to domestic houses and corporate headquarters. Norman Nixon, the chief executive officer of Freedom Ship Inc, which is developing the proposal for the craft, envisages a "new lifestyle where residents and business owners are only minutes away from a constantly changing environment and have the ability to see the beauty of the world". |
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