The Fanciful Transportation Schemes of the Late 60s and Early 70s

kernals12

Banned
Maybe it was the fascination of the moon landing, but whatever it was, the period between around 1966 and 1974 marked a peak in hype over new revolutions in transportation.
To name some
Airplanes:
Most famously, it was thought that we were on the cusp of mass supersonic transit and that eventually we would be travelling at hypersonic speeds. Also, it was thought these new planes would be VTOL, not needing any runways and able to land in city centers
Helicopters:
It was believed helicopters would be a new means of public transit.
Trains:
Monorails were hyped as the solution to America's traffic problems. Hovertrains, which floated just above a central guideway, were taken seriously as a means of high speed rail
Hovercraft:
In 1968, regular hovercraft service began across the English channel. Christopher Cockrell, the Hovercraft's inventer, predicted that we'd have nuclear powered hovercraft ocean liners that could cross the Atlantic in 24 hours. Science Fiction writer Arthur C Clarke said that the day was coming where wheeled vehicles would be banned from roads.
Cars:
Even our cars weren't immune from this. It was thought the Wankel Rotary engine would replace the piston engine, offering smooth and compact power. GM at one point halted all development on new piston engines in favor of the wankel and planned to put one in the Chevy Monza, AMC planned to buy this engine and put it in their Pacer. Mazda, by 1974 was offering Rotaries on everything, even their pickup trucks.

It is quite remarkable that none of this panned out. And before any of you blame the oil crisis, know that oil prices in 1986 had fallen to just above their 1973 levels, and yet none of this was revived. It seems to me that with the Apollo project, people assumed that any barrier to new technology could be removed with enough effort, but it turns out many problems are a lot harder to solve, or even impossible to solve, than we thought.
 
How about rolligons?

These were hyped as, for example, the best means of transport in tundra areas: northern Canada, Siberia, like that. I don't know if anyone suggested Antarctica.
 
Fanciful schemes for mass transport have always been around. Monorails were 'invented' in the 1930's. Personal airplanes were already predicted in 1918 and before WWII, tweaked to include flying car hybrids or personal autogyros. I even recall predictions from the late 1800's that promoted 'rolling sidewalks', a kind of airport terminal escalators built into every street as a way of public transport soon to be seen in every mayor city.

What was special about the 1960's was that it was a period of great optimism towards technology where it was enough to know that one could build it. Worries about the new inventions being economically feasible were pretty much nonexistant. So in the end it was not that supersonic passenger planes were an unfulfilled promise, it was just that large-capacity Jumbo Jets made more sense especially if you had to regard not only the pure flight times but also the time spent at the airport checking in and out or simply waiting... just like the rolling sidewalks from Jules Verne's future dreams were supplanted by another invention much more simpler and faster: the bicycle.
 

kernals12

Banned
Jumbo jets were also a fanciful scheme

Supersonics, helicopters and hovercraft happened on a limited scale
true, although Jumbo Jets were predicted to be a fad on the road to SSTs. The reason why the 747 has its distinctive hump is to allow conversion to cargo service.
 
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kernals12

Banned
How about rolligons?

These were hyped as, for example, the best means of transport in tundra areas: northern Canada, Siberia, like that. I don't know if anyone suggested Antarctica.
I looked those up. The inventor would frequently be driven over those tires to demonstrate their softness.
 
Can't leave out the Ford Nucleon.
88N59kN.jpg
 

Driftless

Donor
There was some more thought out considerations of autonomous vehicles too in the 60's, using some combination of devices embedded in the roadways to serve as guides. I remember seeing one of those artist renderings of the classic 1960's "grey flannel" business commuters sitting in their own autonomous car cabin - face to face - like on a train. One gent waving his straight stemmed briar pipe, making a humorous point to his opposite, while another reads the paper.

*edit* A different autonomous car rendering than the one I remembered, but the idea is the same
 
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Some of these are perhaps just in need of further research and funding, others perhaps make you wonder if the designers were still suffering the after effects of some 'chemical stimulus' from the sixties. Whilst the Ford Nucleon is so impractical and looks like it comes straight from the Fallout universe, it should be remembered that in the 50's an American company actually marketed a children's chemistry set that contained uranium samples!

No one has listed my personal favourite though. In the early 1970's British Rail, the company that would in the 90's blame the 'wrong type of snow' for train delays and cancellations (and I was actually working for them at the time, so have an understanding why this wasn't quite as daft as it sounds) would hold a patent for a Flying Saucer!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_flying_saucer
 

kernals12

Banned
Some of these are perhaps just in need of further research and funding, others perhaps make you wonder if the designers were still suffering the after effects of some 'chemical stimulus' from the sixties. Whilst the Ford Nucleon is so impractical and looks like it comes straight from the Fallout universe, it should be remembered that in the 50's an American company actually marketed a children's chemistry set that contained uranium samples!

No one has listed my personal favourite though. In the early 1970's British Rail, the company that would in the 90's blame the 'wrong type of snow' for train delays and cancellations (and I was actually working for them at the time, so have an understanding why this wasn't quite as daft as it sounds) would hold a patent for a Flying Saucer!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_flying_saucer
How about this plan by NASA for a spacecraft that would be propelled by nuclear f*cking explosions?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion)
 

kernals12

Banned
A lot of techno-optimists will cite past predictions that were too pessimistic such as the head of IBM in 1941 saying there was a market for 5 computers or Western Union turning down Alexander Graham Bell's telephone patent claiming the device was of "no use" (a quote of dubious veracity) but in reality predictions are usually too optimistic rather than too pessimistic.
 
How about rolligons?

http://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/03/rolligon-vehicle-that-makes-running.html?m=1

The inventor Bill Albee was a teacher in an Eskimo village and on a fishing trip in 1935, he observed native fisherman hoist a wooden boat laden with several tons of fish onto a bank with several inflated seal skin balloons under it. They even pulled it up an incline.

The rolligon uses low tire pressure somewhere on the order of 5 pounds per square inch.
 
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