History Main / WeWillAllFlyInTheFuture

* As originally presented, the ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' gave everyone in the 30th century flight rings to allow effortless flight.

* In ''Literature/SpaceCadet'', there's a passing reference to the protagonist's [[KidsDrivingCars kid brother flying the family helicopter]].

One way to establish a setting as occurring in the future is to show everyone -- or at least a nontrivial portion of the population -- flying about. Whether it is by personal jetpacks, mass transit aircars, or simply letting [[{{Flight}} everyone flit around like birds,]] the power of flight will be as effortless and casual as walking on the grass. People flying for the shortest and most frivolous reasons will be commonplace, and may even qualify as idle recreation for some.

Oddly enough, this trope is seldom, if ever, crossed with BigFatFuture, perhaps because the visual appeal of a flying populace requires [[WeWillHavePerfectHealthInTheFuture future folks who are fully fit.]]

* French artist Jean-Marc Côté's [[https://news.artnet.com/art-world/french-artist-predicted-the-year-2000-2008650 “France En L’An 2000 (France in the Year 2000)”]] -- published in the year 1900 -- features SliceOfLife scenes including flying firefighters, hovering policemen directing air traffic, cannon-firing dirigibles, and postmen in one-man aeroplanes delivering letters to people on their balconies.

* In a 1991 strip from ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' what is presumably a comedy club advertises "Appearing Tonight: George Burns". We know it's the far future (hence the joke) in part because there's a bunch of Flying Cars, a (human-piloted) Flying Saucer, and some kind of personal helicopter flitting around in the sky. Creator/GeorgeBurns was 95 at the time the strip was originally published (but did not, alas, live to see ubiquitous flying cars, as he died at the age of 100 about five years after this strip was originally published).

* In ''WesternAnimation/MeetTheRobinsons'', floating bubbles are used as public transportation.

* Not a future, but a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' series, everyone and their mom owns a flying car, motorcycle, speeder, etc.
* ''Film/TheFifthElement'' has flying cars for everyone.
* ''{{Film/Metropolis}}'' has a number of shots of biplanes flying between skyscrapers.
* The Three Most Important People In The World from ''Film/BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure'' sit in midair, complete with MidairBobbing.
* In ''Film/BladeRunner'' the skies above Los Angeles are teeming with police "spinners", giant airship-things (seemingly used mainly as hovering billboards), and swarms of other flying cars of various types.
* In ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'' the then-futuristic year 2015 is portrayed as featuring streams of flying cars and "road" signs that somehow hover in mid-air.

* In the ''Literature/TimeWarpTrio'' book "2095" personal anti-gravity discs the size of large lapel pins are commonplace, and worth only a few cents (when a slice of pizza is over a hundred dollars).
* There is a short story by Creator/RobertSheckley, where everyone on Earth has learned to levitate efficiently, and then the protagonist gets infected with a MindVirus that disrupts his levitation and spreads quickly onto others, so TheGovernment comes after him.
* In Creator/DamonKnight's novella ''Dio'' (or ''[[https://books.google.com/books?id=nZl0CwAAQBAJ&lpg=PT8&dq=Damon%20Knight%20The%20Dying%20Man&pg=PT9#v=snippet&q=noon&f=false The Dying Man]]''), humans have genetically engineered themselves into gorgeous, model-quality (or better) immortals. Their ability to levitate is a plot point in the first couple of pages, where the title character loses this ability (in midair).
* Common in various ways in the works of Creator/RobertAHeinlein. From two of his "Heinlein juveniles": In ''Literature/SpaceCadet'' there's a passing reference to the protagonist's [[KidsDrivingCars kid brother flying the family helicopter]]; in ''Literature/TheStarBeast'' teenagers routinely get around in "flight harnesses".
* In Heinlein's short story "Literature/TheMenaceFromEarth", recreational flying on the Moon--in a huge air-filled cavern, using artificial wings--is a common pastime for the Lunar colonists, and for tourists as well, and forms an important part of the plot.

* In Creator/HBeamPiper's ''Literature/LittleFuzzy'' stories, and the broader "Terrohuman Future History" of which they are a part, the invention of "contragravity" makes this trope universal. Characters routinely fly in aircars, even bulldozers are equipped with contragravity and are thus ''flying'' bulldozers, buildings have "landing-stages" on their roofs, and a city on a human-colonized planet is described as being a "streetless contragravity city of a new planet that had never known ground traffic".
* Likewise on the "Home Timeline" of Piper's ''Literature/{{Paratime}}'' stories, aircars (including [[AutomatedAutomobiles robot]] aircabs) are ubiquitous and buildings have "landing-stages" on their roofs. (Technically "Home Timeline" is not actually The Future--it's an alternate universe that happens to include a much more technologically advanced Earth than any of the other near-infinity of alternate Earths, including our own. Presumably any timeline that could manage to not have a nuclear war or otherwise fall into some sort of Dark Age would also wind up with Flying Cars, robots, and {{Ray Gun}}s.)
* In Creator/LoisMcMasterBujold's Literature/VorkosiganSaga "groundcars" (implied to be hovercraft) still exist, but aircars, "lightflyers" (fast and sporty aircars), "float-bikes" (flying motorcycles), and "lift vans" are also all in widespread use. One character (after nearly getting in a groundcar accident) asks another character when a major city's "municipal traffic control system" for groundcars is going to be finished, but is told that they're prioritizing the "automated air system" on account of the increase in fatal lightflyer accidents.
* In Creator/ArthurCClarke's novel ''Literature/ChildhoodsEnd'' "the perfection of air transport" in the form of the "ordinary private flyer or aircar" means that everyone in the society of Earth under the rule of the Overlords is "free to go anywhere at a moment's notice".
* Found throughout Asimov's ''Literature/FoundationSeries''. In the opening chapters of ''Foundation'' when Gaal Dornick catches a taxi it immediately lifts "straight up". (Gaal marvels a bit at "the sensation of airflight within an enclosed structure"--this is all happening ''within'' the enormous CityPlanet that is Trantor.) Centuries later, in ''Second Foundation'', Arcadia Darell rides an "air-taxi" on Kalgan.

* A borderline example: On the third season of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', the BadFuture has literally ''everyone'' having superpowers after apparently a superpower-granting serum becomes commonplace. Peter only realizes he is in the future by how many people on their normal daily routines started to fly around or teleport, or use superspeed in their business suits, with briefcases.

* Iron Crown Enterprises' ''Cyberspace'' RPG had ubiquitous jet packs, though they were usually limited to police, military, and corporate use.

* The game ''VideoGame/{{Cloudpunk}}'' is set in a futuristic city set high above the clouds, where everyone gets around in flying cars.
* ''VideoGame/FZero'': In the distant year of 2560, the pre-eminent sport in the universe is high-speed hovercar racing on tracks suspended hundreds of feet in the air.

* ''ComicStrip/ThePerryBibleFellowship'': [[https://pbfcomics.com/comics/now-showing/ "Now Showing"]] is dependent on this trope for its punch line. The first panel has a ''wildly'' inaccurate depiction of World War II: An apparently Jewish-British guy (his shield has a combination of the Union Jack and a six-pointed star) is mounted on a zebra and uses a lance to kill Hitler (who is wearing a [[UsefulNotes/PrussiansInPickelhauben pickelhaube]]). Cue end titles, complete with a sailing ship, a biplane, and a mushroom cloud, as everyone leaves the movie theater. We know that the joke is "this is The Future (and their ideas about our recent past will be as distorted as ours are about AncientGrome)" as opposed to "boy, Hollywood sure does take a lot of artistic license about stuff" because the last panel shows a landscape with multiple flying cars and what appear to be fully-functional hoverboards replacing actual ''walking''.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', the wheel has become lost knowledge because all cars have been floating, flying, and/or hovering for so long that wheels are too ancient to remember. They also have tubes that wind through the city of New New York that people hop into and are whisked away in to whatever destination they need to get to. There's also a wide variety of personal flight technology available, such as rocket boots, antigrav belts, and jet packs. Want to fly in Futurama-verse? Pick your poison.

* French artist Jean-Marc Côté's [[https://news.artnet.com/art-world/french-artist-predicted-the-year-2000-2008650 “France En L’An 2000 (France in the Year 2000)”]] features SliceOfLife scenes including flying firefighters, hovering policemen directing air traffic, cannon-firing dirigibles, and postmen in one-man aeroplanes delivering letters to people on their balconies.

* French artist Jean-Marc Côté's [[https://news.artnet.com/art-world/french-artist-predicted-the-year-2000-2008650 "France in the Year 2000"]] (a series of illustrations depicting 21st century life) featured flying firefighters, hovering policemen directing air traffic, cannon-firing dirigibles, and postmen in one-man aeroplanes delivering letters to people on their balconies, among other scenes.

* French artist Jean-Marc Côté's [[https://news.artnet.com/art-world/french-artist-predicted-the-year-2000-2008650 "France in the Year 2000"]] (a series of illustrations depicting 21st century life) featured flying firefighters, postmen in one-man aeroplanes delivering letters to people on their balconies, cannon-firing dirigibles, and hovering policemen directing air traffic, among other scenes.

* French artist Jean-Marc Côté's series of [[https://news.artnet.com/art-world/french-artist-predicted-the-year-2000-2008650 illustrations depicting 21st century life]] featured flying firefighters, postmen in one-man aeroplanes delivering letters to people on their balconies, cannon-firing dirigibles, and hovering policemen directing air traffic, among other scenes.

* French artist Jean-Marc Côté's series of [[https://news.artnet.com/art-world/french-artist-predicted-the-year-2000-2008650 illustrations depicting 21st century life]] featured flying firefighters, people in one-man aeroplanes buying food, cannon-firing dirigibles, and hovering policemen redirecting air traffic, among other scenes.

* In [[https://www.pinterest.com/pin/757308493569494972/ this 1991 strip]] from ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' what is presumably a comedy club advertises "Appearing Tonight: George Burns". We know it's the far future (hence the joke) in part because there's a bunch of Flying Cars, a (human-piloted) Flying Saucer, and some kind of personal helicopter flitting around in the sky. Creator/GeorgeBurns was 95 at the time the strip was originally published (but did not, alas, live to see ubiquitous flying cars, as he died at the age of 100 about five years after this strip was originally published).

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* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' has numerous units with flight capabilities, usually either via a JetPack or by flying wings.

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* in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'', they do not even know what a wheel is because all cars have been floating, flying, and/or hovering for so long that wheels are too ancient to remember. And if that doesn't fit the bill, they also have tubes that wind through the city of New New York that people hop into and are whisked away in to whatever destination they need to get to in the city. And if that is still not enough to qualify, they also have every other means of insta-flight available to them. Such as rocket boots, antigrav belts, and jet packs. Want to fly in Futurama-verse? Pick your poison.

* Not a future but in a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' series, everyone and their mom owns a flying car, motorcycle, speeder, etc.

Also see IBelieveICanFly.

* In Isaac Asimov's short story "Literature/ForTheBirds", a fashion designer is hired to help perfect recreational flight in the low-gravity portion of a space habitat. He eventually realizes that [[spoiler:trying to use ''wings'' is the wrong approach ; they need a suit with fins and flippers, like a dolphin, in order to "swim" through the air]].

* As originally presented, the ''ComicBook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}}'' gave everyone in the 30th century flight rings to allow effortless flight.

* The game ''Cloudpunk'' is set in a futuristic city set high above the clouds, where everyone gets around in flying cars.