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Hybrids, hydrogen cells, electric – these are the buzzwords that most vehicle manufacturing firms find themselves saying a lot these days - they are considered truly cutting-edge. Yet there is one type of transport that would surely trump them all – and that’s the flying car.

Recently, Elon Musk, the billionaire behind electric sports car company Tesla, said he could “definitely” build a flying car.

Not only does he think he can build one – according to an interview with the Independent, he thinks it would be easy.

So what’s stopping him from going ahead and starting the next transport revolution?

Making a flying car is not the hard part, he explained, “the hard part is, how do you make a flying car that’s super safe and quiet? Because if it’s a howler, you’re going to make people very unhappy.”

Musk is no stranger to making machines run quietly – just look at his Tesla S model, which glides down the road almost silently. But a flying car would be a different animal - probably having more in common with the rockets built by Musk’s SpaceX division in terms of sound.

In the past, Nikola Tesla – the name behind Musk’s car firm – did once propose a flying vehicle that harnessed electrostatic force. Musk didn’t say exactly how such a machine would operate, but in true Musk style, he will no doubt let the world know loud and clear – if and when it becomes something saleable.

Of course, aside from the mechanics of getting a car into the sky, huge thought would have to be given to how air traffic lanes would work for cars. And of course, for drivers, finding a suitable car breakdown provider would be another headache. Thankfully, such conundrums do not concern today’s land-based motorists – not with cover from startrescue.co.uk available.