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Every personal flying vehicle design we've seen mimics an existing vehicle's riding convention: You're either sitting down as you would in a car, airplane or helicopter, or in some cases, straddling a seat as you would with a motorcycle.
Startup Zeva Aero departs from convention with the radical design of their Zero Personal Air Vehicle. Their design brief was not to create a vehicle that would convey you comfortably; instead, the Zero's mission is you get you from point A to B as quickly as possible—speeds of up to 160 MPH, the company says--and within a minimal footprint. Thus the vehicle they've dreamt up…
…features this as the riding position:
At rest, the Zero stands at an angle, resting on two fixed feet. The company points out that this allows the vehicle to fit neatly into a parking space.
It's not quite clear how exactly you mount and demount the vehicle, but this is what it would look like in flight, at least in theory:
The video shows animations of the flight experience:
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One intriguing possibility suggested by the company is that buildings of the future could have these mounted to individual boarding gates on any floor:
The idea of true door-to-door intracity travel sounds novel. I just don't think I could get over the Superman flying position and a view that's gotta be terrifying.
I’m a lapsed industrial designer. I was born in NYC and figured I’d die there, but a few years ago I abandoned New York to live on a farm in the countryside with my wife. We have six dogs.
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Would You Use a Personal Flying Vehicle, if the Riding Position was Terrifying?
I'm glad I wasn't the only person who thought Flying Flapjack~ But, this actually reminds me more of the conceptual civilian Flapjack from the May 1947 issue of Mechanix Illustrated, with it's backyard STOL landing strip and tilting cockpit:
The more things change...
Name six vehicles that weren't terrifying to most people at the time they were initially designed.
I'm reminded of the Vought XF5U AKA the "Flying Flapjack." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vought_XF5U