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As motorways become more and more clogged up with traffic, a new generation of flying cars will be needed to ferry people along skyways.
That is the verdict of engineers from the US space agency and aeronautical firms, who envision future commuters travelling by "skycar".
These could look much like the concept skycar shown in the picture, designed by Boeing research and development.
However, such vehicles could be some 25 years from appearing on the market.
Efforts to build flying vehicles in the past have not been very successful.
Such vehicles would not only be expensive and require the skills of a trained pilot to fly, but there are significant engineering challenges involved in developing them.
"When you try to combine them you get the worst of both worlds: a very heavy, slow, expensive vehicle that's hard to use," said Mark Moore, head of the personal air vehicle (PAV) division of the vehicle systems program at Nasa's Langley Research Center in Hampton, US.
But Boeing is also considering how to police the airways - and prevent total pandemonium - if thousands of flying cars enter the skies.
"The neat, gee-whiz part is thinking about what would the vehicle itself look like," said Dick Paul, a vice president with Phantom Works, Boeing's research and development arm.
"But we're trying to think through all the ramifications of what would it take to deploy a fleet of these."
Past proposals to solve this problem have included artificial intelligence systems to prevent collisions between air traffic.
Nasa is working on flying vehicles with the initial goal of transforming small plane travel.
Small planes are generally costly, loud, require months of training and lots of money to operate, making flying to work impractical for most people.
But within five years, Nasa researchers hope to develop technology for a small plane that can fly out of regional airports, costs less than $100,000 (￡55,725), is as quiet as a motorcycle and as simple to operate as a car.
Although it would not have any road-driving capabilities, it would bring this form of travel within the grasp of a wider section of people. Technology would automate many of the pilot's functions.
This Small Aircraft Transportation System (Sats) would divert pressure away from the "hub-and-spoke" model of air travel.
Hub-and-spoke refers to the typically US model of passengers being processed through large "hub" airports and then on to secondary flights to "spoke" airports near their final destination.
(Agencies)
由於高速公路上的交通堵塞情況越來越嚴重，一種能夠載人穿梭在「空中高速路」上的新一代「飛車」將成為需要。
這就是美國國家航空航天局和一些航空公司的工程師們的意見，他們預測未來人類將會乘坐「飛車」旅行。
這些車可能會和圖片中見到的波音公司研發中心設計的概念飛車很相像。
然而，這樣的交通工具可能需要25年左右的時間才能投放市場。
人類在過去製造飛車的努力一直都不是很成功。
這樣的交通工具汽車耗資不菲，而且要求駕駛者具備像訓練有素的飛行員一樣的駕駛技巧；不僅如此，在研製過程中還面臨工程學方面的嚴峻挑戰。
馬克·摩爾是美國國家航空航天局蘭利研究中心（位於漢普頓）汽車系統項目組「個人空中交通工具（PAV）」小組的負責人，他說：「當你試圖將各個方面組合起來時，得到的是一輛最糟糕的車：非常笨重，速度又慢，價格還高，總之駕駛起來很不方便。」
但波音公司同時也在考慮，在上千輛「飛車」進入空中的情況下如何對空中通道進行管理，防止交通陷入徹底的混亂。
波音公司研發部門「幻影工程隊」的副總裁迪克·保羅說：「最關鍵和最精彩的是設計出這種交通工具本身，但是我們也在全力考慮當這樣一支車隊投入運行後可能出現的所有情況。」
關於如何解決這個問題，以往就有一些建議，包括使用人工智慧系統來防止空中交通工具之間發生碰撞。
美國國家航空航天局正致力於飛行交通工具的開發，其初步目標是對小型飛機的旅行方式進行改革。
小型飛機通常都很昂貴，噪音也大，駕駛這種飛機還需要數月的訓練和不少資金，這一切都使得「飛去上班」成為大多數人不切實際的幻想。
不過，美國國家航空航天局的研究人員希望在今後的五年內能夠開發出一種技術，使小型飛機不受地區機場的限制，花費不到10萬美元，而且噪音與汽車相當，操縱起來也和開汽車一樣簡單。
儘管這種交通工具將不具備在馬路上行駛的功能，但它能使更多的人可以享受這種新的旅行方式。（這種新的）技術將使許多飛行員的操作步驟實現自動化。
這種「小型飛機運輸系統（Sats）」將可以為中心輻射型（Hub-and-spoke）的空中旅行模式分擔壓力。
中心輻射（Hub-and-spoke）表示一種典型的美國空中客運模式：乘客在大型的中心機場（hub）之間被運送，然後再轉機前往靠近目的地的支線機場。
（中國日報網站譯）