If a flying car sounds like an impossibly futuristic concept, consider this: Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute just won a $988,000 contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to explore the feasibility of a military ground vehicle that could transform into a vertical takeoff-and-landing air vehicle. Carnegie Mellon is part of a team of six contractors the agency selected to create the dream vehicle, which would be able to transport four people and 1,000 pounds up to 250 nautical miles, by either land or air.
-Elizabeth May