Dreams of our chopper future really take off inthe 1940s . But they were still active and well in the 1970s . The old guard could n’t give up on the commuter aircraft of tomorrow . Like in this December 13 , 1970 edition of the Sunday comic strip , “ Our New Age . ”
Written byAthelstan Spilhaus , and illustrated by Gene Fawcette , the cartoon strip relay the predictions of fantast who insist that perpendicular take - off and landing place aircraft ( VTOL ) would not only make the commuter of tomorrow more like George Jetson , they ’d also veer down on pollution !
Sunday Funnies Blast Off Into the Space Age
This being the 1970s , Americans were wake up to the fact that our aura wasabsolutely disgusting . But unhappily for them , more air travel was not the answer . Boring thing like government ordinance and thecreation of the EPAwould have to suffice .
From the laughable strip :
The development of aviation by the year 2000 is promise by experts in air deportation — they look many thousand - rider aircraft — Air Force ’s C5A can already carry over 800 men . Exotic space material , such as boron filaments and beryllium will be in common role .
There will be image nuclear - powered plane and passenger service , over 220 billion passenger miles last year will quadruple to a trillion in 2000 A.D.
Air load from peculiar cargo aerodrome will equal passenger revenue .
Twenty - five percent of all exchange over 15 miles may be by vertical take - off and landing aircraft . If commuting car were replaced by aircraft to business district New York , exhaust pollution would be burn by 80 pct !
Aviation has indeed advanced since the early 1970s — there ’s just a caution to every approach that we actually check . Nuclear - powered planes were assay , but they certainly do n’t participate in rider service . upright take - off woodworking plane are becoming commonplace in the armed services , but they ’re not used by your fair commuter .
It ’s kind of astounding that we ’re still insisting ( or , I should say , that flying car company executives arestill insist ) that making air travel more bromide could be a practical solution to our pollution problems .
Images : Scanned from the December 17 , 1970 edition of Our New Age
transportation
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