The Future is Behind Schedule

"user314" (user314) 07/21/2020 at 13:30 • Filed to: Planelopnik, Japan, it's yyyy where's my jetpack?, the future ain't what it used to be

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Cover image for the June 1993 issue of Popular Mechanics

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In their cover story for the June 1993 issue, Popular Mechanics presented the work of the former !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of Japan in developing a VTOL airliner, featuring illustrations by !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . NAL, now merged into !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , projected lift-fan airliners like the above serving travelers by 2010.

Oops.

phenotyp > user314 07/21/2020 at 13:37

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I knew immediately that those were John Berkey’s illustrations.

As someone who’s been trying to create futures for a long time... yeah. The future’s well behind schedule.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > user314 07/21/2020 at 13:38

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Turns out fuel is expensive and lifting something straight up into the air uses a lot of it. 

feather-throttle-not-hair > user314 07/21/2020 at 13:39

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2020: it costs a lot less to just zoom with someone in Japan.

Fuck this version of the future!

ttyymmnn > user314 07/21/2020 at 13:40

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Yet we have helicarriers. How come the military always gets the cool tech first?

user314 > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 07/21/2020 at 14:09

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Where’s my Mr. Fusion ? Weren’t we supposed to have that by now?

user314 > ttyymmnn 07/21/2020 at 14:18

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Taylor Martin > user314 07/21/2020 at 15:33

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This is the closest we got but it never came to fruition:

I’m sure there are people who know more about this creation than I do, but I saw this in a video one time and thought the idea was cool. Sad it didn’t work.

Thomas Donohue > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 07/21/2020 at 16:02

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Magnets!

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > Thomas Donohue 07/21/2020 at 21:43

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https://images.app.goo.gl/YvxChrwdTh27Tezu8