What’s the Big Idea? 3 Innovative Inventions

Creativity thrives as economy nosedives

The Transition

The economy may be able to bring down spending, prices, the stock market and hiring, but it hasn’t brought down these inventors.

Check out these quirky products coming out this year.

1. Flying car

Say what? Well, I suppose “flying car” is not as accurate as “drivable plane.” Carl Dietrich invented a small plane that has fold-up wings and is street legal.

Dietrich’s vehicle is called “The Transition.” He will begin selling it through his company Terrafugia, next year. The vehicle will fit in a regulation sized garage. It’s expected to retail for $194,000. I wonder if it will be easier or more difficult to get personal loans for flying vehicles versus regular ones.

2. Freight rocket

Jerry Larson was quick to hop on board when he hear about Spaceport America. When it’s built, Spaceport America will be like an airport for commercial space traffic. A spaceport. Larson “saw a potential profit in sending ’stuff’ on short trips into near space.” He believes it will be useful for things like corporate research and development and university research.

Larson has built a small rocket that is designed to carry cargo into space. Customers can split the cost of the cargo space, like a timeshare. Larson says that NASA currently does similar operations, but his costs a tiny fraction of what they charge.

3. Cow GPS

Dean Anderson and Daniela Rus have designed a little device that they hope will take the place of large, costly fences. It’s a headset for cows, equipped with a GPS device.

Instead of erecting a large fence, ranchers can just slip the headset onto their cows. The GPS device allows them to preprogram “virtual boundaries.” When a cow wearing the headset approaches a boundary, auditory signals will keep it from wandering off.