Flying Commuter Jettison Craft Type To Exist Soon

Passenger jets and drones are not the only vehicles that will need to talk to each other in the none-too-far-off future. Though flight-minded laymen still have not seen a Jetsons-like age arrive, the personal air commute is, at least, closer than it was before. Jet pack ideas abound, (such as the Martin Jetpack and Marc Newson’s “Body Jet”) and flying cars are on the make (for example, Terrafugia and Moller International’s Skycar). Sure, the morning commute is not likely to crowd the sky the way it does our streets anytime soon. However, if the air is thick with nine-to-fivers, there will have to be some traffic system in place.

Current air-traffic control is not designed to handle localized takeoffs and landings. But, just as vehicle-to-vehicle communication is soon to keep automatic cars from colliding, aircraft-to-aircraft interaction is soon to make the man in manned aircraft a little less necessary. Congress has ordered the FAA to pave the way—legally and technically—for unmanned aircraft systems to fly in U.S. airspace by 2015. Flying commuters can piggyback on those changes.