Lessons from flying saucers and Nikola Tesla

One not -yet– published imagestream of mine came into contact with a flying machine reminiscent of a flying saucer. (The ones I met flew just above the earth’s surface.) On researching into the subject a little I found the great inventor Nikola Tesla had been working on a ”flying machine” just before his death. His angle on airplanes was that they were ”fatally defective”. When questioned about his own device Dr. Tesla smiled an inscrutable smile. "All I have to say on that point is that my airship will have neither gas bag, wings nor propellers," he said. "It is the child of my dreams, the product of years of intense and painful toil and research. I am not going to talk about it any further.”

The whole thing got me thinking about what flying saucers can teach us about sustainable transport.

1. They require the minimum of infrastructure. No roads or runways or tracks needed. This gives a much more effective use of land you can grow crops and use it as a means of travel at the same time. Much less material and land tied up.
2. No airports needed – and therefore none of the hassle associated with air travel of today.
3. Because of their stability the inherent safety reduces loss of life and environmental impacts resulting from crashes
4. Effectively powered, they produce no or little pollution.
5. The one I rode in had a fixed cruise speed. This also provided a safety feature vis – a vi other saucers as computers could control safety distances by predicting possible conflicts.
6. It also could turn on a sixpence – making it very flexible compared to the railway or a roadway.
7. The upper deck had the seats arranged in a circle – making the trip more of a social event, but it also had an on-line library so you could get educated while you fly.

Read the admiral attempts to explore these and other possibilities on the American Anti Gravity association’s homepage. (link above and below)