FLYING CARS COMING SOON

In just two years, a company called Terrafugia says it will offer flying cars for sale.

The company plans production of two “roadable” aircraft, the Transition, which has folding wings and must be driven to an airport for takeoff, and the TF-X, a car that could vertically take off and land.

The Transition, which is much further along in development than the more conceptual TF-X, is expected to cost nearly $300,000, but the company says there were already 100 pre-orders earlier this year. The car uses the same engine for driving and flying, and can be run on premium gasoline instead of much costlier aviation fuel. On a full tank, the company says the plane has a range of about 800 kilometers.

Owners will have to have a valid driver’s license as well as a sport pilot certification to operate the Transition.

Terrafugia says the Transition must meet the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as part of the automotive certification process.

Recent drive testing showed the craft is capable of stopping from a speed of 120 kilometers per hour in a distance of only 34 meters, according to the company.
 
 Aeromobil  V2.5


 Also like Terrafugia, a company called GET, based in Bratislava, Slovakia, released flight-test video of its flying car prototype, the Aeromobil 2.5. The vehicle, which seats two and can be driven like a car, has folding wings that deploy for flight.
A 100-horsepower engine drives the wheels for ground travel and spins a rear-mounted propeller to push it through the air. It is designed to cruise at about 100 miles an hour.
If the Aeromobil’s characteristics sound familiar, it may be due to similarities between it and another flying car under development, the Terrafugia Transition. The Transition, built by the Woburn, Mass., company Terrafugia Inc., is also more of an airplane than a car. But like the Aeromobil, it is designed to be driven to and from the airport and to complete longer trips when the weather isn’t safe for flying.
The Slovakian vehicle appears to be a few years behind the Transition in development, but its presence suggests there is a market for such hybrid road-air vehicles.
Flying-car designs have been coming and going almost as long as cars and airplanes have been around. Some, like the 1950s Aerocar, worked but never caught on, possibly because people considered them impractical or lacking adequate performance on the road or in the air.
Today the combination of lightweight materials, more efficient engines and more flexible rules in civil aviation could make flying cars feasible for a broader audience.