New Hampshire could become the first state in the nation to allow flying cars on the road.
Gov. Chris Sununu signed HB1182 on Friday, to allow the study of on-road usage of non-traditional motor vehicles. The cars would likely fly into an airport, then drive to their final destination.
“There was nothing on the books that would have allowed this type of vehicle on the road,” said Rep. Sherman Packard, one of the bill’s sponsors. “To allow them to even exist in New Hampshire we had to pass this type of legislation.”
Packard says this project has been in the making for about a decade.
“We knew at some point it was going to come,” said Packard of the legislation. “It just happened to come this session.”
Packard says these cars won’t be seen on daily commutes anytime soon. He says the cars are still in the early stages of design.
Jeff Rapsis, executive director of the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire, has been following the development of flying cars. He says they will likely go unseen in traffic.
“If you’re driving down the highway you won’t see some unusual air-craft like device coming behind you,” Rapsis said. “While on the road it will behave very much like a normal car.”
The passing of the legislation also brings him nostalgia.
“It conjures up all types of images,” he said. “It goes back to films like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (A 1968 fantasy feature about a magical flying car) when I was a kid.”
