People like to think good ideas are some how formed by immaculate conception. Have you ever said to yourself “I wish I would have thought of that”? There is a reason why you didn’t. Most good ideas don’t just pop into someones head out of nowhere. Good ideas are part of an active and iterative process that can take days, months or years to get right. The big idea you envy wasn’t the first idea its creator had.
Whether you are an inventor, an entrepreneur or a photographer it all comes down to numbers. How many prototypes have you created? How many ways have you looked at tweaking your business? How many pictures have you taken? Rarely do we get it right the first time. Those that think they have nailed it early on are often just settling. Voltaire said, “Good is the enemy of great.”
Q: How would you make a flying car?
Add wings to the car? How about a couple of jets? Yeah. I thought about those too. The big ideas aren’t the first ideas. Those are the ideas everyone can think of. Those are the average, practical ideas.
If you want to have more homerun ideas you have got to swing the creativity bat more often. Don’t be afraid to think beyond the obvious, let your imagination run free. Sure, you will generate a ton of bad ideas, but you also have a better chance of having a truly big idea.
Let’s try that exercise again, but this time force yourself to write down 15 ideas in the comments of this post. I bet you get beyond wings and jets.
I’d probably want to set the car to be more of a combination helicopter/jet sort of like Venom’s helicopter/jet in M.A.S.K.
1. A rotor would be embedded into the roof to pop up when needed for flight. This would allow the car to lift off the ground and hover.
2. Tires would rotate 90 degrees from their traditional carlike position and tuck up into the undercarriage.
3. Wings would slide out from between the space below the door and just above the undercarriage.
4. The car would have a rear spoiler that would transform into a stabilizer for the rotor.
5. The car itself would have to be more aerodynamic from the ground up. Probably a pod section in front for the driver/pilot with a passenger cabin in back.
6. Or it would still look sort of traditional but the driver would drive from the middle instead of driver/passenger side. Passengers would be slightly back behind the driver and to the sides. This way we might be able to make the car slimmer. The driver’s section could extend out to give the flying car more length.
7. Safety is going to be a key factor because lets face it you put turbo jets in the hands of the average consumer and a rear mounted camera isn’t going to help you out when you flambe the garage. So jets would probably be out for safety reasons and turbines would just be too unpractical.
8. Build on the existing flying cars. Here is an article about 2 grandpas working on a fly car in their garage. http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/two-grandpas-building-a-flying-car-in-their-garage-250369.php
9. Propulsion is the big issue here, what is going to give this car enough power to get it off the ground and yet be practical and safe and inexpensive enough for the average consumer. We are looking at fuel options that haven’t event been invented yet, cold fusion, zero gravity and magnetic propulsion
10. If somehow you could add a magnet that works off the magnetic pull of the earth itself and was strong enough to lift the car but not so strong that it flings you off the earth it might allot the car to hover, then you’d only need a way to steer it, So if the force or strength of the magnetic is increased the car could go higher or lower.
11. An inflatable balloon on the roof capable of lifting he car.
12. Drive the cars really fast off cliffs and have a glider attachment whip out and then some sort of thruster kick in. Testing that one will be messy.
13. Unicorns
14. Wheels that extend off the car, sort of the like the Moller flying car but ones that could transform from wheels to turbines when needed for flight. Being able to have parts function in multiple roles is what is going to make this car small and light enough to achieve lift off.
15. Balloon idea again but this time put Donkey in the balloon and let his “hot air” fill ‘er up.
@BenSpark:
I love the inflatable balloon idea. Have you ever gone for a hot air balloon ride? There is something special about the feeling of floating…much cooler than prop or jet propulsion.
I’ve done the hot air balloon ride. Once I got over my heights fear, it was awesome.
@anindyahirasti: Jo lali brainwash bare nggo rinso .. @deyconficker: brainstroming neng ngarep omah~