Well, it's not quite as cute as an Taylor Aerocar, but it does seem to work as advertised. Terrafugia's Transition, a crossbreed of a car and an airplane, successfully completed its first test flight this week, taking to the air for 37 seconds. As MSNBC reports:
Transition's aerial debut followed six months of road tests and years of design. The goal is to create an airplane that can be driven to and from a runway and parked in the family garage at night.
Transition runs on regular unleaded gasoline and can travel up to 500 miles on a single tank of gas. It takes less than 30 seconds for the vehicle's wings to fold up or extend to transform from plane to car or vice-versa.
"The point of the test was to prove that this could both fly and drive," Deitrich said.
Information from the test flight will be used to tweak the Transition's design for a second prototype. The company plans to begin selling the vehicles, which cost $194,000, in 2010, said Richard Gersh, Terrafugia's vice president of business development.
Transition runs on regular unleaded gasoline and can travel up to 500 miles on a single tank of gas. It takes less than 30 seconds for the vehicle's wings to fold up or extend to transform from plane to car or vice-versa.
"The point of the test was to prove that this could both fly and drive," Deitrich said.
Information from the test flight will be used to tweak the Transition's design for a second prototype. The company plans to begin selling the vehicles, which cost $194,000, in 2010, said Richard Gersh, Terrafugia's vice president of business development.
Per usual, the folks from AVWeb have pulled together an excellent and informative video that shows the Transition's first flight, and highlights some of its technical features"
LINKS:
Terrafugia Transition (official website)
PREVIOUSLY:
For Sale: One Aerocar; Half Car, Half Airplane
It's an Amphicar! It's an Amphicar!
(IMAGES: Photos from Terrafugia)
Well, I dunno about "not as cute as an Aerocar", especially in the roadable configuration. "Wings folded up" is a *lot* cuter looking than "took them off and trailered them behind"...especially when the folding and unfolding is electrically powered.
Especially cool that the first flight was in Plattsburgh, I've flown in and out of the now-closed Clinton County airport, and spent time on the air force base (now Plattsburgh International Airport).
Posted by: Maggie Darwin | 20 March 2009 at 02:38 PM
looks pretty cute to me.
i think this is the first flying car i've seen that actually seems sort of practical.
it seems to not attempt to do too much, and looks to be somewhat elegant at doing what it can.
who is the market for this, i wonder...
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WOW....wierd design but great idea...only time will tell when cars begin to fly :)
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