If the news had been released to mass media just a day sooner, some people may have thought it was an April Fool’s Day joke, but it’s not a prank at all.
What many individuals thought would only be possible in science fiction movies (or their dreams)is becoming closer and closer to being a consumer’s reality. Terrafugia, Inc., a company based out of Woburn, Massachusetts, has premiered what they are calling, the Transition—a car that is able to change into a flying aircraft with just a few (a very few) minor changes.
As a car, it is able to do, well, everything a car can do. You can drive it on side roads and it even moves fast enough for highway speed. You can fuel it up like any other kind of vehicle at your local gas station and while it doesn’t come across, physically, as your traditional compact automobile like say, the Ford Focus or Hyundai Elantra, this little two-seater is created to fit quite nicely into a single-car garage.
As an aircraft, the wings that are normally folded at the car’s side while on the roads are opened up and in no time (literally, based on the video), you are able to fly into the air just as well and easily as any other kind of small commuter plane.
Pretty amazing, right?
According to the company’s reports, this is just the updated version of the prototype that they premiered in 2009. The difference is that Tarrafugia, Inc. now feels like the Transition has met a lot of their requirements; they actually have plans to begin making it available for purchase in as soon as 2013.
That timeline is definitely impressive, but it’s pretty much a given that there will have to be a lot of preparations put into place before it will be available to the mass public. One reason is because the attempts for making a flying car is not something that’s new…or recent, even. Another company by the name of Courtesy Aircraft invented their own version of a flying automobile. It goes by the name of the 1954 Aerocar, it’s a vintage flying vehicle and it’s currently on the market for $1.2 million dollars. The Transition plans on selling their version at a price that is at least four to five times less than that. This means that the Transition is giving at the very least four to five more consumers the accessibility to purchase the vehicle that’s an aircraft…that’s a vehicle.
This also means it’s affording a lot more people the chance to occupy air space. If you’re a big time commuter of commercial planes, can you just imagine how many more flights will be potentially delayed due to the fact that people are taking a little “fly drive”? One way to look at it is that it could be a form of job security for air traffic controllers, internationally, for sure.
Well, at least they have a few more months to figure all of that out.
In the meantime, if you’re personally looking forward to owning the Transition, you might want to check out FlyingCarFilm.com and see it for yourself. However, if you’re someone who would prefer to continue traveling by land, well, there’s always the bus rental New York City route that you can take. Right at this very moment and for just a few dollars too.
http://cmvlive.com/technology/flying-car-takes-first-test-flight