This time a year ago, flying cars sat firmly in the "fun to think about, ain't gonna happen" category. But in recent months, company after company has emerged with totally-not-kidding plans to deliver vehicles worthy of George Jetson. And so, the idea of flying where you now drive finagled its way into the "umm, so this could really be real" column.

So far, this wannabe industry has attracted mostly brash startups, with Uber cheering them on, ready to help deploy whatever tech they can make fly. But one member of the bandwagon offers the gravitas that comes with nearly 50 years of building real life airplanes. Airbus is in the flying car game, and it's ready to embrace a new way to take off.

"It seems like the future has gotten here faster than we all expected," says Zach Lovering, the head of Vahana, Airbus' personal, autonomous, electric, lust-worthy, flying machine. "There clearly is a convergence of technology that has happened to