History Main / FlyingCar

* ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV Grand Theft Auto Online]]'' saw the return of the Deluxo (previously only seen in ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity Vice City]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCityStories Vice City Stories]]'' as a land-based vehicle based on the [[Film/BackToTheFuture DeLorean DMC-12]]) as one of these. It also has [[WeaponizedCar a small arsenal]] onboard. The Oppressor Mk. II, meanwhile, is a hoverbike with a similarly robust arsenal. Both vehicles, incidentally, have [[DemonicSpiders a rather storied reputation]] among the game's fans as the WeaponOfChoice for every {{troll}} due to how easy it is to kill other players with them.

* ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV Grand Theft Auto Online]]'' saw the return of the Deluxo (previously only seen in ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity Vice City]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCityStories Vice City Stories]]'') as one of these. It also has [[WeaponizedCar a small arsenal]] onboard.

* In the ''Literature/AgentG'' series by Creator/CTPhipps, these are known as Vertifical Lift Off (VLO) vehicles. They appear by the third book and become a plaything of the rich as the setting moves from NextSundayAD to {{Cyberpunk}}.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'', [[http://www.sinfest.net/view.php?date=2004-08-31 Slick promises flying cars while running for president.]]

* The ill-fated Toronto Peace Festival was being planned while Music/JohnLennon and Music/YokoOno, who were supposed to have creative control, were in Denmark studying with Don Hamrick. (They thought his methods would help them stop smoking.) Amid [[https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1970/7/1/the-ups-downs-of-a-great-canadian-peace-festival the general chaos]] as the Peace Festival/Peace Foundation organizers attempted to organize, Hamrick proposed debuting his "air-car" invention at the festival. It could be driven like a car or flown. The alleged blueprint was a pastel drawing of "a combination helicopter, midget racer, automobile and airplane". How was it supposed to fly? Psychic energy! See, the overall length was 22 feet, because 22 is (supposedly) a very important number in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_in_Egyptian_mythology Egyptian numerology]], and the rear wings were at right angles that were the same degrees as [[https://thatsmaths.com/2014/07/10/gausss-great-triangle-and-the-shape-of-space/ The Great Triangle]]. These and other things built into the design were supposed to enable it to get off the ground. The festival eventually evolved into the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawberry_Fields_(Canadian_festival) Strawberry Fields Festival]] at Mosport in Ontario.

* The ill-fated Toronto Peace Festival was being planned while Music/JohnLennon and Music/YokoOno, who were supposed to have creative control, were in Denmark studying with Don Hamrick. (They thought his methods would help them stop smoking.) Amid [[https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1970/7/1/the-ups-downs-of-a-great-canadian-peace-festival the general chaos]] as the Peace Festival/Peace Foundation organizers attempted to organize, Hamrick proposed debuting his "air-car" invention at the festival. It could be driven like a car or flown, and was supposed to be fueled by psychic energy. The alleged blueprint was a pastel drawing of "a combination helicopter, midget racer, automobile and airplane". The overall length was 22 feet, because 22 is (supposedly) a very important number in [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_in_Egyptian_mythology Egyptian numerology]], and the rear wings were at right angles that were the same degrees as [[https://thatsmaths.com/2014/07/10/gausss-great-triangle-and-the-shape-of-space/ The Great Triangle]]. The festival eventually evolved into the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawberry_Fields_(Canadian_festival) Strawberry Fields Festival]] at Mosport in Ontario.

* ''Literature/LuckyStarrAndTheRingsOfSaturn'': While on Titan, Lucky is impressed by the [[{{Technobabble}} diagravitic]] hovercars built by the Sirians. They're driven by robots, of course.
* Creator/IsaacAsimov and Creator/JanetAsimov's ''Literature/TheNorbyChronicles'': The flying police cars, taxis, and other vehicles have [[ArtificialGravity antigrav motors]].

** "Literature/ThePsychohistorians": The taxi Gaal uses to arrive at the Luxor hotel can fly vertically as well as accelerating in the air. It's used to indicate that events are taking place in the far future, when such [[ArtificialGravity antigravity]] transportation might be common.

In a setting more similar to the present day, a flying car can be used to show off the credentials of a {{superhero}} or a character who's rich enough to be one of the Fiction500. Or sometimes it's just a way to demonstrate that a show is set in a far-flung time and/or place. Nothing screams "futuristic (or alien) city-scape" better than giant buildings with all the space between them [[FuturisticSuperhighway crammed with flying shiny specks]]! Either way, you need a flying car!

In a setting more similar to the present day, a flying car can be used to show off the credentials of a {{superhero}} or a character who's rich enough to be one of the Fiction500. Or sometimes it's just a lazy way to demonstrate that a show is set in a far-flung time and/or place. Nothing screams "futuristic (or alien) city-scape" better than giant buildings with all the space between them [[FuturisticSuperhighway crammed with flying shiny specks]]! Either way, you need a flying car!

* The final scene of the first episode of ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' has Agent Coulson quoting Doc Brown verbatim while flying away in his CoolCar, [[ICallItVera Lola]]. He flies it several times in later episodes.

* In one [[ComicBook/DisneyMouseAndDuckComics Disney Comics]] Donald Duck story, some aliens crash-land on Earth and, seeing Donald's pie delivery van, mistake it for a spaceship since it looks very much like their spaceship and subsequently turn it into a literal flying car while trying to "fix a few things."

* During the ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'' fanfic ''Fanfic/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil:SecretsOfTheMysteriousHollow'', Jackie Lynn Thomas' older sister owns a 1970s periwinkle-purple van which Jackie 'Borrowed', and upgraded with magic thanks to the magic wand charger that Marco kept ever since [[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS1E8QuestBuy Quest Buy]], in order to help rescue Star from Mewni. It's also used once again when the gang needed to travel to London after [[MissedTheBus missing their flight.]]

* During the ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'' fanfic ''Fanfic/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilSecretsOfTheMysteriousHollow'', Jackie Lynn Thomas' older sister owns a 1970s periwinkle-purple van which Jackie 'Borrowed', and upgraded with magic thanks to the magic wand charger that Marco kept ever since [[Recap/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilS1E8QuestBuy Quest Buy]], in order to help rescue Star from Mewni. It's also used once again when the gang needed to travel to London after [[MissedTheBus missing their flight.]]

* During the ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'' fanfic ''Fanfic/StarVsTheForcesOfEvilSecretsOfTheMysteriousHollow'', Jackie Lynn Thomas' older sister owns a 1970s periwinkle-purple van which Jackie 'Borrowed' in order to help rescue Star from Mewni.

* During the ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'' fanfic ''Fanfic/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil - SecretsOfTheMysteriousHollow'', Jackie Lynn Thomas' older sister owns a van

* The video game adaptation of ''VideoGame/HarryPotter'' video game has Harry and Ron unable to navigate an aircraft, get lost and then get nearly killed by a Jumbo Jet.

* [[UnfortunateNames The Whiz Wagon]], used by ComicBook/JimmyOlsen and the Newsboy Legion during Creator/JackKirby's "Fourth World" tenure at DC in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

* Gina from ''ComicBook/GoldDigger'' patented (and often destroyed) "Gina Mobile" can turn into one when needed.

* Common in ''Franchise/MassEffect'', due to the ubiquity of Element Zero-based technology. In the "Lair of the Shadow Broker" DLC for ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', you even get to pilot one in a scene reminiscent of ''Film/AttackOfTheClones''.

* ''Literature/TheNumberOfTheBeast'' by Creator/RobertAHeinlein features one of the coolest cars of all time: Gay Deceiver. It doesn't just fly, it flies at hypersonic speed with retractable swing wings. It is capable of vertical take-offs and landings. It can even do semiballistic sub-orbital flights just past the edge of space. Oh, and it gets upgraded with a time machine that can visit alternate universes, some of them fictional ones, including [[Literature/LandOfOz Oz]] and [[Literature/AliceInWonderland Wonderland]], as well as the ability to teleport within the same universe. Seats four, six if they're really friendly. Plus, it has a magic annex (thanks to one of those visits to Oz) with a pair of fully-functional bathrooms and a never-empty picnic basket. And a superintelligent talking computer autopilot with a wicked sense of humor and a sexy contralto voice. And a highly illegal (but well-hidden) laser cannon.
** "Literature/ThePsychohistorians": The taxi Gaal uses to arrive at the Luxor hotel can fly vertically as well as accelerating in the air. It's used to indicate that events are taking place in the far future, when such [[ArtificialGravity antigravity]] transportation might be common.
* Pretty much all of Heinlein's "Future History" stories have flying cars. One of them (''Literature/ThePuppetMasters'') even describes the North American radar net as being called the "[[Literature/TheBible No Sparrow Shall Fall]]" network that tracks every car (note there are about 250 million registered passenger vehicles currently in the USA). Despite the fact that he was considered one of the "kings" of [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness Hard Science Fiction]], he never would admit that flying cars are AwesomeButImpractical.

* In ''Literature/SpaceCadet'' the protagonist is picked up by a helicopter, which doesn't seem too strange [[ZeeRust until you realise it's a personal helicopter that his family fly themselves]], their version of a family car. Earlier the FarmBoy protagonist mentions getting his [[KidsDrivingCars copter license at the age of 12]].

* [[TeamChef Satsuki]] of ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' has a flying ''Dining-Car Restaurant''. Having two MadScientist friends sure is handy.

* Maglev cars are standard in ''Comicbook/Marvel2099'''s Nueva York, not least because it's a LayeredMetropolis where nobody who can afford it goes to ground level.

* ''{{Literature/Valhalla}}'' features flying cars called "pogos," named for their bouncing nature.

* ''Videogame/{{Fortnite}}''[='=]s Battle Royale mode features an improvised flying bus called the Battle Bus. Its main components are a purple school bus and a hot air balloon, and its purpose is to load up 100 combatants who then parachute off the bus onto the island where the fighting takes place.

* In ''Videogame/XRebirth'', the Consumer Compact Craft seen around space stations bear striking resemblance to cars and trucks, minus the wheels, and come in a wide variety of models from delivery to sleek and sporty. They fly around in lose three-dimensional "lanes" that thread the stations and the space between them as police compact craft move about scanning for contraband. CCC's have no capacity for weaponry and are roughly the size of modern traffic vehicles, whereas even the smallest proper SpaceFighter is significantly larger, comparable to a modern jet fighter.