It's safe to say that most commuters have sat in traffic at one point and thought that it would be great if they could just take to the skies and avoid the traffic. The reality is that the flying car isn’t quite ready for mainstream use yet. However, they could well change thanks to a government-sponsored program to develop a flying vehicle coming by way of DARPA.

DARPA has a long history of taking projects that sound like fiction and turning them into reality. Often, the tech spills over into the civilian world despite the fact that most of the high-tech projects that are started by DARPA are for military applications. DARPA is now hosting a Proposer's Day Workshop for a new project known as Transformer (TX).

The TX program has nothing to do with seeking out the all spark. The program is intended to ultimately produce a vehicle for use by one to four combatants that can travel over prepared surfaces and light off road surfaces and fly to avoid difficult terrain and ambush. The workshop is set for January 14 and will run from 0700 to 1500 EST.

The workshop is solely for informational and program planning purposes according to DARPA. The goal is to introduce the research community to the TX program vision, goals, and objectives. The workshop doesn't constitute a formal solicitation of proposals or proposal abstracts reports DARPA. The flight function of the vehicle will require the ability for vertical takeoff and landing. The vehicle must also be capable of range and speed suitable for tactically relevant missions to be performed on a single tank of fuel.

DARPA is looking to develop a vehicle that is robust and capable of being delivered at reasonable cost. It also wants to identify and mature critical technologies for the vehicle and ultimately build a single prototype vehicle for ground and flight testing. The program requirements for vertical flight means that vehicles like the Terrafugia car/plane that require a runway will not meet the program goals.