Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls... I bring you... Terrafugia!

Terrafugia, the street-legal airplane!

The Transition® Every pilot faces uncertain weather, rising costs, and ground transportation hassles on each end of the flight. The Transition® combines the unique convenience of being able to fold its wings with the ability to drive on any surface road in a modern personal airplane platform. Stowing the wings for road use and deploying them for flight at the airport is activated from inside the cockpit. This unique functionality addresses head-on the issues faced by today’s Private and Sport Pilots. Terrafugia’s award-winning MIT-trained engineers have been advancing the state-of-the-art in personal aircraft since 2006. Now you can streamline your flying experience with the revolutionary integration of personal land and air travel made possible by the Transition® Roadable Aircraft. Performance Cruise: 100 kts (115 mph) Rotate: 70 kts (80 mph) Stall: 45 kts (51 mph) Range: 400nm (460 mi) Takeoff over 50' obstacle: 1700' Fuel burn: 5 gph Fuel tank: 20 gallons Useful Load: 430 lbs On road: 30 mpg, highway speeds Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) Convenience Front wheel drive on the ground Automotive-style entry and exit Two place, side by side Automated electromechanical folding wing No trailer or hangar needed Cargo area holds skis, fishing poles or golf clubs Safety Drive in case of inclement weather Proven 100 hp Rotax 912S engine Full vehicle parachute available Modern glass avionics Automotive crash safety features Dimensions Folded: 6’ 9” tall 80” wide 18’ 9” long Airplane: 6’ 3” tall 19’ 2” long Wingspan: 27’ 6” Cockpit: 51” at the shoulder Training Become a Sport Pilot in as little as 20 hours of flight time in a Transition®-specific course. For existing pilots, get comfortable quickly with the familiarization training included with every Transition® delivery.

Here is the price of this mighty fine craft

Place your fully refundable $10,000 airframe reservation deposit here.Anticipated purchase price: $194,000.

That is cool. I want one, anybody have a spare 300,000 to loan me.

It has a pretty decent range too, the only thing that I see a problem with is the useful load. Kind of light, but more than adequate for a weekend trip or golf trip.

Good find.

reply to post by Shoomoo


Some people can't even drive all that well. PLEASE don't give them the air as well.

Imagine the insurance on this thing? What if you had an accident with one and it was your fault?

reply to post by Shoomoo


Imagine being able to fly up north and instead of driving 3-4 hours you fly for 1 hr..

Or you want to go to florida for the weekend, then cali the next...

You could make several short hop flights around the country cutting your drive time into a fraction.


these will be mass produced once we figure out a cheaper fueling system for all machines...

With free energy or something similar to it these could actually be affordable, as by that time they may only cost about $60-80,000...........Far less than a boat....

reply to post by LucidDreamer85


Imagine people trying to text while flying and running into buildings, well, higher up parts of buildings formerly thought safe.

I'd much rather have a puddle jumper or similar. Than I never have to deal with traffic, cops or insurance.

reply to post by aleon1018


Pfff... Just fly away!

I think this would be cool, it could turn out to be very practical and a lot cheaper than commercial flights, also you could fly right over the grand cannon, but like everything else, the gov will impose new flight rules and restrict your amount of mobility that these allow people.

i'm glad to see companies still working on this. although, this duck is a tad ugly IMO lol.

in all seriousness, i doubt TPTB would want something like this to be available to the general public. i imagine the "sky police" would be a very large outfit to say the least.

the more i think about it, the more inclined i am to believe the gov. will give it a no go.

cheers,
AA

It is a nice novel idea, but honestly for that price, go buy a Cirrus SR-20 AND a new car. TPB wouldn't care about it since it's nothing different compared to any other light aircraft - but I guess you could save a lot on hanger costs and such.

[edit on 17/8/2009 by C0bzz]

problem is with flying cars is that when u get one u have to get a flying license. not to mention the lack of a runway on a crowded street and you are running out of fuel......

[edit on 17-8-2009 by loner007]

But don't you see guys? This is the beginning.........

The era of The Jetson's is arriving! Finally!

Yay! Makes me all giggly.

Oh man, I want one!! Now I just have to come up with a good excuse for having one at my office. Maybe work will buy a couple!!

reply to post by ladyinwaiting


IIRC, there have been similar designs to this that predate the 1960's.

Originally posted by C0bzz
reply to post by ladyinwaiting

 

IIRC, there have been similar designs to this that predate the 1960's.

i believe your right even though most of those designs could not generate the lift needed or were so expensive they were deemed "trash." i notice on this version of the idea, there are alot of wings to help the flow of air go to just the right places.

although, sudden turbulence in this craft would scare the crap out of me since basically your flying a giant shoebox.

cheers,
AA

Originally posted by aleon1018
Imagine the insurance on this thing? What if you had an accident with one and it was your fault?

The insurance would be the least of your worries, you'd be all dead and stuff

I agree though, there are alot of peoplearound who find it very hard to control a car, so letting an aerocar type thing loose on the unsuspecting public is a bad idea.

reply to post by Acidtastic


But every innovation has to start somewhere, and this looks like a viable beginning. Moreless a prototype, but good enough to be well on it's way towards something really usuable. Kinda cute, too.