Posted on 01/10/2009 7:35:53 PM PST by Squidpup
IS it a car? Is it a plane? Actually it’s both. The first flying automobile, equally at home in the sky or on the road, is scheduled to take to the air next month.
If it survives its first test flight, the Terrafugia Transition, which can transform itself from a two-seater road car to a plane in 15 seconds, is expected to land in showrooms in about 18 months’ time.
Its manufacturer says it is easy to keep and run since it uses normal unleaded fuel and will fit into a garage.
Carl Dietrich, who runs the Massachusetts-based Terrafugia, said: “This is the first really integrated design where the wings fold up automatically and all the parts are in one vehicle.”
... The Transition, developed by former Nasa engineers, is powered by the same 100bhp engine on the ground and in the air.
Terrafugia claims it will be able to fly up to 500 miles on a single tank of petrol at a cruising speed of 115mph. Up to now, however, it has been tested only on roads at up to 90mph.
Dietrich said he had already received 40 orders, despite an expected retail price of $200,000 (£132,000).
“For an airplane that’s very reasonable, but for a car that’s very much at the high end,” he conceded.
There are still one or two drawbacks. Getting insurance may be a little tricky and finding somewhere to take off may not be straightforward: the only place in the US in which it is legal to take off from a road is Alaska.
Dietrich is optimistic. He said: “In the long term we have the potential to make air travel practical for individuals at a price that would meet or beat driving, with huge time savings.”
(Excerpt) Read more at business.timesonline.co.uk ...
Having owned—and raced—the first of the 2000cc Pintos, the strut appears to have been attached to the semi-elliptical rear spring's front attachment point—a strong place, but still subject to metal fatigue.
On page two of the previous link, you can see that the wings are abnormally stressed upwards near takeoff speed, indicating a major flaw to me (although a novice at this). :-\
This would have been a perfect answer to Miamians with a 2nd home in the Lower Florida Keys: Both Marathon and Summerland Keys have airports, with Summerland Key having a community of combined hanger-homes lining both sides of a paved runway. Hmmm. Hmmm.
I already want to take away their car keys - certainly not let them fly over my house.
Oh, and let's make sure we let Muslim terrorists buy a bunch of them.
I still want a Moller.
“IS it a car? Is it a plane?”
Is it the first?
Isn't that where all Bernie Madoff's investments went?
Perhaps, I was just going off of the 'body panel' comment, which I took to be the sheet metal. The spring attachment point would certainly make more design sense.
So fly across and save the toll.
That photo is a great metaphor for the decline of progress that is the Green Revolution. From horsepower to cowpower.
After World War II a lot of people, particularly mustered out pilots, thought this was going to happen, as did the younger Berliner, who made all the aerocoupe inventions. They did not foresee the rise of commercial aviation as we have known it for 60 some years.
![](http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:R8sR7daexSBGmM:www.ted-kyte.com/3D/Pictures/Spark%2520Plug.jpg";)
Rest In Peace, old friend, your work is finished.....
If you want ON or OFF the DIESEL ”KnOcK” LIST just FReepmail me.....
This is a fairly HIGH VOLUME ping list on some days.....
How long until a follower of Islam puts a bomb in it and we have our first flying carbomb?
My guess is 15 minutes after it hits the showroom floor in the middle east.
Why does one need to put a bomb IN it?...............
Makes it Islams version of a poor mans cruise missile, there doesn’t seem to be a shortage of guidance systems over there either...
First? Here are a bunch of historic pictures of flying cars:
http://images.google.com/images?ndsp=21&um=1&hl=en&safe=off&q=taylor+aerocar&start=0&sa=N
More about flying cars (going back to the 1930’s)
http://classiccars.about.com/b/2008/08/12/this-weeks-classic-car-history-highlight-the-aerocar.htm
No blind spots while you are driving, either..../end sarc
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