Flying Cars, QAnon and Nevada Coronavirus Protections for Workers.

• Author: Frazzini, Kevin
• Position: News Briefs

News briefs for the week of Sept. 7: Flying cars are up, up and away in New Hampshire; some legislative candidates tilt toward QAnon; and Nevada protects hospitality workers from the coronavirus.

New Hampshire: First in Flying Cars

Saving time between your plane landing and finding ground transportation has never been easier. At least in New Hampshire. In August, the state became the nation's first to permit the operation of "roadable aircraft"--better known as flying cars.

If you imagine driver-pilots taking off from neighborhood streets to get to work or drop the kids at soccer practice, you're getting ahead of yourself. New Hampshire's "Jetsons Bill," which the governor signed in August, requires that flying cars "take off and land from a suitable airstrip," though they may be driven to and from those facilities on public roadways.

There are no flying cars ready for consumer production today, but several companies have models in the works. No surprise, they don't come cheap. The AeroMobil likely will set you back roughly $1.2 million to $1.6 million, though the Terrafugia is a bargain by comparison at about $300,000.

The Granite State's bill doesn't spell out all the details of operating a flying car; rather, it establishes a commission "to study the on-road usage of non-traditional motor vehicles." That group, which will include lawmakers from both chambers and numerous executive branch officials, presumably will address some of the more obvious questions: How will operators be trained and licensed? Are there limits to flying altitude? Do driver-pilots file flight plans?

Not quite a plane, not really a car, these drivable airships are in a regulatory gray zone. New Hampshire requires a valid aircraft registration and an annual aircraft inspection, and operators must pay a $2,000 municipal permit fee to the town where they live. But, on the positive side, no DMV--flying cars are exempt from motor vehicle inspections.

Dream of Flying, Driving in One Vehicle Goes Way Back Flying cars whizzed into the popular imagination in the early 1960s with TV's "The Jetsons." But the dream of zipping down the road then soaring through the air, all in the same vehicle, began long before the hit animated series. Crafty engineers were busy doodling plans for flying cars not long after the Wright brothers' famous flight over Kitty Hawk, N.C., in 1903. Here are a few early examples: * Curtiss Autoplane, 1917: A three-winged vehicle powered by a car motor...