The age of the flying car, long imagined, may begin the other way round, with a plane that drives. The Transition, built by Terrafugia in Massachusetts, does just that
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There's a new car in the sky or perhaps that should be there's a new plane on the highway. Whatever you choose to call it, a flying car or a roadable aircraft ,it's generating a buzz at the 2012 International Automobile Show in New York City. In fact to find it you don't need to follow the signposts - instead simply follow the hordes of excited children who want to see the science-fiction dream of the flying car made real.
As you'd expect the cockpit combines controls and dials from both a car and a plane. There's a steering wheel, climate control, and a radio, plus, a pop-up throttle control, rudder controls next to the pedals, and a navigational panel that displays maps, altitude and wind speed. There's even space for carry-on luggage and golf clubs. You drive it like a car but after the wings are unfurled, which takes less than a minute, the propeller starts to spin and the transition becomes a light aircraft.
This is the prototype of the transition and it's made one successful test flight. It costs a bit below three hundred thousand dollars including a ten-thousand-dollar deposit and terrafugia is already taking orders one was even placed while we visited the show.
The transition takes advantage of the light-sport aircraft category introduced in 2004. Light-sport aircraft are designed to be easy to use for beginner pilots and require half the usual 40 hours of training. What about safety? Well if something goes wrong in mid-air help is at hand.
It may sound expensive but the transition offers savings over conventional aircraft. Hangar fees are done away with and it uses the same ordinary petrol that cars do - which is considerably cheaper than aviation fuel. But there are still piles of paperwork from many agencies that must be completed in order to certify a single vehicle for both road and air.
Once the regulations have been sorted out and certification has been granted, production will begin in Massachusetts - or elsewhere if another state makes a better offer. The first models are expected to be delivered to their owners in twenty fifteen or twenty sixteen.
The flying car remains in the future them but it is no longer limited to the realm of science fiction.
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