For nearly four decades, Russian engineers tried to set up a a flying car public transportation system in Moscow and other parts of Russia. We've got the history and future of their dream, in pictures.


The system wouldn't have cars that flew exactly - instead, they would be suspended from thin wires you could barely see. According to English Russia:

It was called the "super string transportation system" and was claimed to come to replace the existing rail road technologies. The steel cords under great tension had to be stretched on the polls across all the country to support the high speed (up to 500 km/h - 300 mph) trains movement.

It would be sort of like a gondola system, only it would look more space-age. In fact, these images look like public transportation on another planet.

Plans for the trains were approved in the 1970s, and work began on them right away. As you can see from these images, the system was never very extensive but it was durable. This is what the tracks look like today.

This was a prototype of the cars they imagined using the tracks. Basically, it looks like a truck. It's also not suspended from a wire, but apparently that was part of a later plan.

This is an example of a contemporary super string car, put on exhibit recently in Moscow. It looks a lot more futuristic than those trucks, but it's still a long way from being a flying car. No word on whether the super string system outside Moscow will ever be revived.


via English Russia