Photo: Screenshot from Youtube
The flying car is an idea that has been with us from the very inception of both cars and airplanes. Various types of crosses between a car and a plane have been tried out over the years, and some were actually very good. Joining the latter category is the Transition, a car-slash-plane made by Terrafugia, a company founded in 2006 by MIT-trained technical engineers, working out of Woburn, Massachusetts.
The Transition has just completed an intensive round of testing (both in the air and on the ground) and is set for a ‘late 2012’ official start to customer deliveries. But how can such a thing be practical and legal? Well, the craft has four wheels, one at each corner, giving it car-like handling and no fear of rolling over or crashing. Also, the wings fold neatly along the side of the fuselage and barely protrude outward. It also features headlights, indicators and pretty much anything you would expect from a regular car.
The Terrafugia Transition is the perfect vehicle for those who simply want to fly somewhere, land wherever they choose, and then continue the final part of the journey on the roads, not having to put up with check-in or any of the other negatives associated with airlines - in theory, at least, it makes perfect sense. However, being the ultra-nice vehicle that it is, you shouldn’t have been expecting it to be cheap - it isn’t. The Transition will set you back €220,000 ($279,000), and while expensive, it is still ‘affordable’ enough for it to be a feasible commercial success.
Story via wsj.com
The Terrafugia Transition is the perfect vehicle for those who simply want to fly somewhere, land wherever they choose, and then continue the final part of the journey on the roads, not having to put up with check-in or any of the other negatives associated with airlines - in theory, at least, it makes perfect sense. However, being the ultra-nice vehicle that it is, you shouldn’t have been expecting it to be cheap - it isn’t. The Transition will set you back €220,000 ($279,000), and while expensive, it is still ‘affordable’ enough for it to be a feasible commercial success.
Story via wsj.com
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