Terrafugia Transition flying car gets a little closer to reality with FAA approval
By Tim Stevens 
posted June 30th 2010 9:29AM
posted June 30th 2010 9:29AM
posted June 30th 2010 9:29AM
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nty
Meh
It's needs:
to be made of stainless steel
gull-wing doors
a flux capacitor
@Smart People Play Tuba
And it needs to run on Mr. Fusion.
@Fizz
It probably needs shorter wings to keep from taking out every car it meets going down the road
@Eli Haj
LOL. Eli, you're killing me. Do you think you need the wings to land or does it just drop into traffic??? LOL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smGmrpn2Vrk
@Fizz
one step closer to living like the Jetsons....
Too bad we'll never get to fly one, since the drug cartels already preordered them all.
"Thats right we need ALL of them, and when you run out and need to make more, we want all of THOSE too. Now look at this photo, those are your kids walking home from school yesterday. Get the picture?"
"ALL OF THEM!!!!"
@rcc lol do you think your allowed to just land this on a highway? how many years of your life did you waste watching the jettsons? you HAVE to go to an airport and follow regulations or the FCC would have never allowed this thing
Looks like something i've seen 100 times years ago in popular science magazines.
@longcat sure, PopSci has had numerous flying cars on the cover of their magazines, but there are a couple of important differences with this one; first, it's real. Second, it's licensed by the FAA, which means it actually flies. Third, it's classified as a Light Sport Aircraft which means you don't need a full pilot's license to fly it - the LSA license takes about half the time and cost half the money ($3k-$5k depending on where you do it).
This is awesome, because there are so many good drivers out there.
@jonbruc Heh--While a sport pilot rating is not as difficult or expensive as a full private pilot rating, you can't exactly get it at the bottom of a box of Cracker Jacks like you can a drivers license. The outlay of money, time, effort, and smarts is significant--raising the entry bar high enough to separate the vast majority of the wheat from the chaff.
The fact that the Transition goes for almost 200 large is a significant entry barrier, too.
That would cut down on drive time to the grocery store. I wonder how the trunk space is. Hopefully the cup holder size is adequate.
Why do they always have to be so ugly?
@tineras
They're not. Enter the Icon A5. Shits sexy as hell.
@xler8r except the Icon A5 isn't a flying car at all. it's a boat plane. yes it's still a Light Sport Aircraft, but it's hardly the same thing as a flying car.
So wait. A plane, that is by it's very nature way more complex and likely error prone then a regular plane, can be flown by people with only 20 hours of experience flying?
When do you think will be the first time somebody try to take off before folding the wings down?
Or tries to drive away before folding them up?
@gotung Or leaves their coffee on the roof?
This may be the only $194,000 car where women are actually turned off when they see you in it.
@gotung
This thing has so many redundant safety features, you would think they found an aerospace engineer with a law degree to design it.
@TimStevens Admit it, you thought of that just after the post and were waiting for the right opportunity to sneak it into comments.
@TheSpoonyBard
Yep. Flying cars are terrible ideas with amazing sci-fi appeal - except this one. It's a brutally ugly triumph of function over form.
@juanvaldez Heresy!
@TheSpoonyBard I seriously doubt the very roots of your statement.
It actually flies just great, as long as you're not holding the stick with your left hand.
Yeah but its not really a flying car is it ... its just a fucking plane that can be driven on the road ... hardly stuff of science fiction note!
Practial? Not so sure. I mean when do you get to switch from driving along the highway to flying up high in the sky? If it had the vertical take off of a heli and wings come out once in the air then we'd be talking. Good luck selling this!
@hero785: I think the general idea is that you take off and land at one of the more than 5,300 "general aviation" airfields in the US and then drive to where you're going locally. Gen Av fields are designed to accommodate, small, regional A/C.
I think in practice this could be useful. I know it'd be awesome for me -- I work 105 miles away from where I live, and getting my light A/C license doesn't seem to daunting. The $194k . . . somewhat problematic, but I'm betting that 3-5 years in, I could probably pick one up for less than $100k. In CA this could be both hugely beneficial in relieving highway congestion (think SFO to San Jose commute) as well as a potential total nightmare if the licensing process lets through too many numb nuts.
@hero785
Having visited the Cape Islands of Massachussetts, I know for certain there is a market for this product. That area is overrun by wealthy people who want to bounce from mainland-to-island-to-island. The big obstacle is that when they land on each island in their private planes, they have to arrange car transportation to whoever's house they're visiting. It also is complicated because the car rental companies, etc. don't want to run 24/7, while these people want to explicitly fly in and out at odd hours on odd days of the week, holidays, etc.
This product solves several of those friction points.
Was just thinking that this would make for a pretty wild police chase
@dgold82
lawl.
@dgold82 I would not want the air force to come after me in this POS, well it looks great, but not when it's next to a fighter jet.
@juanvaldez
jet fighters are too fast, the cops will just chase you on segways with broomsticks until you hit a tree
@dgold82
lolol, I can see it now.... guy bursts through a gate onto the airport tarmac with police chasing him. He then presses the red button and then the wings fold out, police then drop bricks in amazement!
@dgold82 i lol'd
@Plazmic Flame no offense, but, were you dropped on your head as an infant?
Never fails, there's always that "one guy" at a party that needs to explain someone else's joke after people already laughed.
"Haha,so the chicken he was needing to get to the other side!! Haha, because he was wanting to get there! And fast!"
Is it Christmas? Cuz I smell me some miracles.
Terrafugly. Somebody had to say it.
If I had a hundred grand to spend on a light sport aircraft I'd rather have the amphibious Icon A5. Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads...
http://www.iconaircraft.com/
@weatherman
nobody had to say it actually
@weatherman Wow, that thing is beautiful! It is as pretty as the Terrafugia is homely.
This looks like a VERY safe vehicle to rear end...
Great, now I can worried about getting hit from any 360 degree direction by someone texting on their phone while "driving" one...
Isn't there this... fin that blocks your rear view mirror?
@TheSpoonyBard
No, there's a whole engine
@TheSpoonyBard
Almost every commercial vehicle weighing gross 80000 doesn't have a mirror on the windshield, and when carrying "wide loads", forget about using your side mirrors most of the time, yet they are involved in the least amount of accidents.
Well, I really do not know who would want to buy one. If it would be a car with a gyrocopter rotor then maybe yes (hint gyrocopters have very short take of roll, can land nearly vertically and are much safe than helicopters. The only problem - they can not hoover).
@stoffer They can't Hoover!? Why would I want to vacuum my floor with a gyrocopter? I'd rather have a Dyson. :-)
@Gregory Pius haha, that was an accidental pun :)