Flying prototype car - no longer pure fiction
The aerospace company Terrafugia developed the first Transition Street-Legal Airplane prototype
The impossible dream may soon be reality, as the Terrafugia executive promised to have the final product ready for customers as soon as next year.
The pilots and engineers from the Massachusetts Company have completed the first round of trials of the prototype. The drivable plane landed its first flight at Plattsburgh International Airport in upstate New York last month. The flight reached an altitude of 1,400 feet above the ground and lasted eight minutes. Six phases of flight tests are planned to show the Transition's compliance to standards set by the FAA's Light Sport Aircraft branch.
The ‘flying car’ promises to be very advantageous for the final customers – one would be able to go anywhere no matter what the weather is: if you can’t fly because of a storm you can just continue driving! The model is extremely practical and is designed to fit is a household garage, so you don’t need to rent a hanger and on top of that it is very fuel efficient – you fill it up on gasoline just like your car! It is very light-weight vehicle made from carbon fibers and it weighs less than 1000 pounds, which reduces the rolling resistance on the ground, together with its relatively aerodynamic shape even with the wings folded up and it the 100 horse-power engine, the ‘flying car’ is actually more fuel efficient than some regular cars. Anyone flying the Transition will need a sport pilot certificate.
The two-seater vehicle, which is designed with foldable wings that convert in less than a minute, falls into the light sport aircraft category and is expected to take off and land at small, local airports and to drive on virtually any road.
For skeptics who wonder if the vehicle will be safe, the company designed it with the automotive safety technologies in mind – safety cages, crumple zones, airbags, seatbelts and on top of that they installed a ballistic parachute system, so if you get into trouble in the air, you can pull a handle and the parachute pops out and brings the entire plane down.
According to Terrafugia the base price of the vehicle will be comparable to the price of the best-selling airplane in all of history Cessna 172, so it’s comparable to other general aviation airplanes. The Transition has an anticipated base price of $279,000.
