Have you ever fantasized about driving a car that quickly transforms into a aircraft while on the move? If you have, then you will be glad to know that in very near future your dream can turn into a reality. Well Burt Rutan, an aviation genius and founder and ex-CEO of Scaled Composites, unveiled this fantasy vehicle recently.
by Laura K. Cowan
Flying cars are here! Well, “roadable planes” are at least. The Terrafugia Transition is a two-seat prop plane that can legally drive itself home from the airport, converting from a 100-horsepower plane to a vehicle that gets 35 miles per gallon on the highway. The U.S. Department of Transportation has granted a three-year hardship exemption that allows the Transition to travel on public roads for three years, despite its motorcycle tires and polycarbonate windshield Terrafugia used to save weight.
by Tim Hornyak
Talk about a way to beat traffic. Actually, you won’t be able to take off out of gridlock in Terrafugia’s flying car, but at least you’ll be able to drive it on roads to the nearest airport. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently granted special exemptions for the Transition “roadable aircraft.”
The exemptions clear the way for shipping to begin from Terrafugia’s Massachusetts plant following testing. The flying car is slated to enter production this year, with shipping in 2012.
Wanna get your kicks flying over Route 66? (Credit: Terrafugia)
The NHTSA stipulations involve the type of tires and windscreen the Transition will use as a land vehicle. The tires are rated for highway speeds and the windshield will be made of polycarbonate materials instead of automotive safety glass to save weight and prevent shattering in a bird strike.
Terrafugia says the Transition, which notched its maiden flight in 2009, is “the first (light airplane) to incorporate automotive safety features such as a purpose-built energy absorbing crumple zone, a rigid carbon fiber occupant safety cage, and automotive-style driver and passenger airbags.”
(Credit: Terrafugia)
The wings on the 19-foot-long two-seater take less than a minute to fold. In flying mode, it has a wingspan of 26 feet, and a width of 90 inches in driving mode. It has a range of nearly 500 miles.
It’s not the futuristic “flying car” some of us dream of, but the Transition could be useful for pilots who’d rather drive and fly with the same vehicle. They can also avoid bad weather en route by continuing their journey on land.
A thought might have struck many of us when we are caught up in heavy traffic that when the space above us is completely free why are we not utilizing it and making it useful for personal transportation. This thought gave rise to a project which aims at ending road congestion and making flying as easy as one drives a car. Many factors are needed to be considered if this project has to take its actual shape; one of the factors is energy consumption.
myCopterPersonal Flying Vehicle
The myCopter project tries to solve the problems and provide a suitable alternative to the rise in congestion on European roads. The project is basically divided into three parts namely: automation, human-machine interfaces and socio-economic environmental impact. According to Prof Heinrich Bülthoff, who gave this idea a proper structure, automation will find its way into concept cars gradually in order to get high safety on motorways and also at juctions. According to the calculated figure the flying vehicle with an electric counter-rotating rotor would be able to cover only 20km on battery power, which is a very small distance if you have miles to travel. The best example for it is the defense industry which is currently looking into flying “flocks”of UAV drones in formation.
Human-machine interfaces will be developed by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), which would ultimately be tested on the full-size and state-of-the-art Eucopter and and simulations which play an important role in the outcome of the project by Flight science and technology group at Liverpool’s university. As everything has its limitations this project too has certain problems which need to be tackled, like the aerospace legislation should be overhauled and the infrastructure available for parking at commuter’s workplaces should be changed without any sufficient training.
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