Honda Motor has built a jet engine and ultralight airframe that could be put together to make a personal airplane and might land on the market by 2007 at $300,000. Honda is helped by General Electrics to pass through the safety testing required for Federal Aviation Administration certification–including the bird strike test, in which euthanized seagulls are sucked into the engine to see if it can take the punishment a real flock can inflict.

Once the vehicle is certified, we can expect improvements to small aircraft flight. Honda’s research into sensors that can read and follow the center lines of roads, ultrahigh definition radar systems and crash-prevention technology will help reduce the risk of novice pilots crashing all around and above us.

Via Jalopnik Forbes.

See also the ConvAIRCAR flying car.
Related entry: First we’ll get air taxis, then flying cars.