A Solano County dream being fulfilled elsewhere by a flying car

Is a promise of our childhood about to arrive? Is it possible that a few decades after we thought the first flying cars would be produced in Solano County (Seriously. In Dixon. More on that in a few paragraphs), we're about to see it really happen? 

Local governments in Virginia are beginning to plan regulations for flying cars. That's not an outrageous planning move, it's prudent: After all, the first Jetson One – a flying car whose inventor says it can take off and land in a driveway – is expected to be delivered to a Virginia resident this year. This year! A flying car! Yes, Virginia, there is a flying car!

The Jetson One is a one-person flying machine. The manufacturers of the $92,000 vehicle require all people who buy it to attend a class before taking off, but according to some reviews, it's intuitive and easy to fly. It also only has a 20-minute flying radius with a maximum speed of 63 mph – meaning you could fly about 21 miles before presumably charging it up for the flight home. Not bad if you live in Fairfield and work in Vallejo or Vacaville.

A flying car! And it's (allegedly) coming to Virginia this year and probably to other places in the United States. The Jetson One people say they've presold 500 vehicles around the world, so it's hard to believe there won't be multiple sales in the United States.

As mentioned earlier, this almost happened in Dixon. Moller International was a company founded by Paul Moller, who spent 50 years trying to create a flying car, first in Davis (where he taught at U.C. Davis), then in Dixon.  In the 1980s, one prototype repeatedly hovered at 50 feet during a demonstration for investors. Early in the 21st century, another of Moller's vehicles achieved "tethered hovering capabilities," which sounds more like a helium balloon and less like a flying car. Moller spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the M400, a four-passenger vehicle that achieved the aforementioned hovering.

The company was the focus of various Daily Republic articles from the 1980s through the 2000s. I read them all.

In 2019, a fire destroyed the first two prototypes Moller built in the 1960s. By then, his company had been dormant for years (its website looks like it hasn't been updated since 2017) and reportedly reached an agreement with a Chinese company to continue production. It's unclear if the Moeller M400 – or any prototypes – are still being pursued, although in an interview last summer, Moller insisted he was still pursuing a flying car and his company was private.

We'll see what happens. Never doubt a dreamer. (Also, never fall in love with a dreamer, as Kim Carnes and Kenny Rodgers sang.)

But . . . but . . . but . . . the Jetson One people created the Jetson One (arguably the greatest name for a vehicle since Volkswagen created "The Thing" for a couple of years in the 1970s, a fact I know because my dad bought one that I wrecked twice in two weeks during my senior year of high school). The Jetson One is in production and someone in Virginia bought one for delivery this year and because of that, the government agencies in that state are making plans.

I'm not sure how they'll govern it. Will you have to pass on the left? Who has the right of way? Is it illegal to buzz your former workplace? Can you use it to drop water balloons on unsuspecting tennis players from hundreds of feet above?

It's all up in the air (pun intended). But here's what we know: A dream that was pursued in Solano County for four decades might be fulfilled this year.

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.