Terrafugia Transition Car - Plane

Attachment 1893

The Transition® by Terrafugia: simply land at the airport, fold your wings up and drive home.

Attachment 1892 Attachment 1894


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.

Attachment 1895

Seriously how cool is this...

http://www.mychinamoto.com/forums/at...1&d=1278172633

The world's first genuine flying car has been cleared for take-off in the USA.

Drivers - or pilots - will only have to complete 20 hours of special training before they can hit the sky - or the road - in a Terrafugia Transition. Clearance for the Sport Pilot certification comes this week from America's FAA - the Federal Aviation Administration - which has classified the Terrafugia as a light sport aircraft, allowing owners to fly-drive without full-scale pilot training.


The waiting list for a Terrafugia aeromobile is already forming, with a pricetag around $200,000 and a likely delivery date sometime after the second half of next year. The interest generated by the potential for a car-plane or plane-car since they emerged as dream machines in the 1950s already sees more than 70 people committed to putting a Terrafugia in their garage - or hangar.


The Terrafugia first emerged in 2006 when a prototype was built by a team of five pilots trained in engineering at the highly-rated Michigan Institute of Technology. It completed its first flight trials in 2009. The MIT-trained team has been flat-out to refine and productionise a vehicle which rolls on four car-style wheels and has folding main wings, to allow it to drive into a standard household garage.


The biggest challenge was meeting the weight limit, but the Terrafugia has been granted an exemption by the FAA because of the extra-weight safety equipment - including airbags and crumple zones - needed to pass passenger-car safety regulations. The Terrafugia is rated with a top speed of 187km/h and a carrying capacity of 195 kilograms, with a range of 740 kilometres. But those are the flight specifications and there is no news yet on what the breakthrough flying car will do on the road. Still, the Transition already has one major advantage over other aircraft - it can be driven home if the weather turns bad.


Source: http://www.carsguide.com.au/site/new..._car_takes_off

But does it float?

:icon10::icon10::icon10:

the first time I saw this thread I just nodded and thought 'yet another pipe-dream factory somewhere in the USA destined ot go broke'. We've seen a few over the years since when i was a kid in the '50's and hoped they would be ready by the time I grew up and got a license! But after Euphonius today posted I looked closer and thought again and now I just wish I had been harder working and not so dem lazy these last few decades that flew by somehow - I really would like one of these! I might sell the house and get one if they prove OK, I would LOVE to do a round the world in one of them. Hmmm. Only 195 kg flying load. That is me, the GF, a toothbrush and a credit card. That should do it, just. Now increase the payload a couple of hundred KG, take a light RT bike and a pump-up dingy as well and that is all you need.

Hmmm, maybe a pump-up GF instead and I could take an electric bike and some cans of beer as it is. Difficult choice that.

Does a pump-up dingy work on a pump-up GF?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by euphonius

Does a pump-up dingy work on a pump-up GF?

---

Trust you to notice that, visualise it and point it out! I just spat sweet and sour fish n'rice all over the keyboard because of you. Of course I meant dingHy as I am sure the rest of the forum, all clean-minded folk, were well aware.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bikerdoc

Attachment 1892

---

Lol one photo appears to be clearly photoshopped.