By Evan Ackerman
Terrafugia Transition is a flying car. Or maybe it’s a driving plane. Whatever you want to call it, it’s probably not what you were picturing as the vehicle of the future… But while it’s not nearly as slick as the Moller Skycar, the Transition has the important distinction of not being total vaporware, and as proof, it had it’s maiden flight on March 5th:
More, after the jump.
The reason that the Terrafugia Transition actually works, and the Moller Skycar doesn’t, is that the Transition is pretty much a light airplane with four wheels and folding wings that happens to also be street legal. Is it going to be your daily commuter? Probably not. But you won’t have to pay for a hangar or tie-down at the airport, and if you do fly somewhere, you’ll have unprecedented flexibility when you get there.
The Terrafugia Transition turns from a plane into a car, and back again, in about 60 seconds. It has a top speed (in the air) of about 115 mph, a range of 450 miles (it runs on regular gas), and requires a light sport license to fly. It’s slated to go on sale by the end of this year for $194,000, which may or may not happen, but it’s always good to see that tangible progress is being made.
[ Terrafugia ] VIA [ Jalopnik ]
Great, so in the middle of the night a drunk driver/flyer will take out my house because he is allowed to fly his car instead of driving on the road
This is not a flying car, it is a roadable aircraft.
I never heard the Terrafugi company before but it seems that they have some interesting stuff going on especially when it has 130mph vehicle.
Doubt it. It requires a light sport pilot license. Pilot licenses are very difficult to get and take a lot of work and expense – unlike a driver's license. After all that hard work and money, I doubt many would want to risk that kind of license. It's just a different kind of person who usually has a pilot license. Of course that doesn't mean that it won't happen at all. It's just extremely rare and I don't see it significantly increasing the risk that you already have of being hit by a drunk flyer.
Doubt it. It requires a light sport pilot license. Pilot licenses are very difficult to get and take a lot of work and expense – unlike a driver's license. After all that hard work and money, I doubt many would want to risk that kind of license. It's just a different kind of person who usually has a pilot license. Of course that doesn't mean that it won't happen at all. It's just extremely rare and I don't see it significantly increasing the risk that you already have of being hit by a drunk flyer.