Inventors (and dreamers) have wanted for decades to have a car which can fly, but the concept has mostly failed to get off the ground - literally.
Now some smart former-MIT students in the US have taken a look at why previous ideas never quite worked and come up with their own solution.
The Transition project by Terrafugia is fascinating - achieved initially by flipping the problem on its head so that it becomes a plane that can drive, rather than the other way round.
In this TED clip, pilot and team Terrafugia member Anna Mracek Dietrich explains the thinking behind the engineering and construction, and how the US authorities have given it the thumbs-up to enter service in 2012.
Some interesting stuff in the presentation around use of airports and route patterns...