Clive Sinclair dreams of flying cars

Sir Clive Sinclair believes that flying cars would be powered by electricity

The much touted flying car will eventually become a reality, according to British inventor Sir Clive Sinclair.

Sir Clive said in an interview on Radio 4 that "flying cars were technically entirely possible".

The prolific inventor explained that the vehicles would be powered by electricity, since petrol engines were too unreliable, and said he would "love to be involved" with such a project.

"I am sure it will happen and I am sure it will change the world dramatically," he said.

"It would need to be automatically controlled because we cannot all learn to fly. The vehicle would take off from your home and fly to wherever you want to go."

Sir Clive was a pioneer inventor of the computer age, developing an inexpensive pocket calculator and the eponymous sub-£100 home computer that made his fortune.

His mass market electric car, the C5, failed to capture the public's imagination, however. In the interview Sir Clive said that the C5 "did not achieve the success I expected".

"We did sell quite a few thousand," he added. "Looking back I can see why [we didn't have success]. It was a bit daunting to go into traffic."

Sir Clive also revealed that, despite his computer background, he does not use the internet.

"I don't use it myself directly," he said, explaining that as an inventor he tried to avoid "mechanical and technical things around me so they don't blur the mind".