What you learned in school
Technology and futurism classes in the 1970s and 1980s predicted that personal flying vehicles would be commonplace by the year 2000. Students learned about a future of three-dimensional transportation where families would commute by air. Textbooks showed illustrations of flying cars as the inevitable next step in transportation evolution. The predictions assumed that technological advances would quickly solve the engineering challenges of personal flight, making aerial commuting as common as driving.
What we know now
Technology and futurism classes predicted that personal flying vehicles would be commonplace by the turn of the century. Students learned about a future of three-dimensional transportation and aerial commuting. Flying cars remain extremely rare due to technical challenges (energy requirements, safety, noise], regulatory hurdles (air traffic control, licensing], and practical issues (cost, infrastructure, weather dependence). While prototypes exist, the vision of widespread personal flying vehicles has not materialized as predicted. Ground transportation has proven more practical and efficient for most applications.