Iain Thomson in San Francisco, vnunet.com03 Jul 2008
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The much touted flying car will eventually become a reality, according to
British inventor Sir Clive Sinclair.
Sir Clive said in an interview on Radio 4 that "flying cars were technically
entirely possible".
The prolific inventor explained that the vehicles would be powered by
electricity, since petrol engines were too unreliable, and said he would "love
to be involved" with such a project.
"I am sure it will happen and I am sure it will change the world
dramatically," he said.
"It would need to be automatically controlled because we cannot all learn to
fly. The vehicle would take off from your home and fly to wherever you want to
go."
Sir Clive was a pioneer inventor of the computer age, developing an
inexpensive pocket calculator and the eponymous sub-£100 home computer that made
his fortune.
His mass market electric car, the C5, failed to capture the public's
imagination, however. In the interview Sir Clive said that the C5 "did not
achieve the success I expected".
"We did sell quite a few thousand," he added. "Looking back I can see why [we
didn't have success]. It was a bit daunting to go into traffic."
Sir Clive also revealed that, despite his computer background, he does not
use the internet.
"I don't use it myself directly," he said, explaining that as an inventor he
tried to avoid "mechanical and technical things around me so they don't blur the
mind".
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