Few people set out to design a flying car and fewer survive the process. Colin Hilton is one of them. Over the course of four years--at the cost of one separation, one career and bankruptcy--he shows the world it cannot be done. What he salvages is a blueprint for another form of transport altogether: a flat-pack flying machine made of foam. "It will take us" he says, "toward the flying car." Dream on. In a unique 'developer's diary' he describes how you can build a surface-skimmer of your own and look equally foolish.