Uber hires veteran Nasa engineer to develop flying cars

San Francisco

IN 2010, an advanced aircraft engineer at National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (Nasa) Langley Research Center named Mark Moore published a white paper outlining the feasibility of electric aircraft that could take off and land like helicopters but were smaller and quieter. The vehicles would be capable of providing a speedy alternative to the dreary morning commute.

Mr Moore's research into so-called VTOL - short for vertical takeoff and landing or more colloquially, flying cars - inspired at least one billionaire technologist. After reading the white paper, Google co-founder Larry Page secretly started and financed two Silicon Valley startups, Zee Aero and Kitty Hawk, to develop the technology, Bloomberg Businessweek reported last summer.