By Lewis Dix, III
Alongside the jet pack, the lack of
flying cars in modern society has been a constant reminder of how far
we have to go for the past 50 years. But 2013 saw the first movement
on this front in years: the first flying car to actually get tested
out in the public. The Transition is a vehicle that can drive down
the street and take liftoff with just 100 feet of runway. It might be
a strange looking car to park in your driveway, but it just might be
the most accessible and serious commercial flying car in existence.
Terrafugia is a small privately held
American corporation that is developing a roadable aircraft called
the Transition and a flying car called the TF-X. The Transition and
TF-X are designed to be able to fold their wings, enabling the
vehicles to also operate as street-legal road vehicles. First
delivery of the Transition is scheduled for 2015.
The Terrafugia Transition is a light
sport, roadable airplane under development by Terrafugia since 2006.
The Rotax 912ULS piston engine powered, carbon-fiber vehicle is
planned to have a flight range of 425 nmi (489 mi; 787 km) using
either automotive premium grade unleaded gasoline or 100LL avgas and
a cruising flight speed of 93 kn (107 mph; 172 km/h). Equipment
includes a Dynon Skyview glass panel avionics system, an airframe
parachute, and an optional autopilot. On the road, it can drive up to
70 miles per hour (110 km/h) with normal traffic. The Transition
Production Prototype's folded dimensions of 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) high,
7 ft 6 in (2.29 m) wide and 18 ft 9 in (5.72 m) long are designed to
fit within a standard household garage. When operated as a car, the
engine power take-off near the propeller engages a variable-diameter
pulley CVT automatic transmission to send power to the
trailing-suspension mounted rear wheels via half-shafts powering belt
drives. In flight, the engine drives a pusher propeller. The
Transition has folding wings, pusher propeller and twin tail.
On May 7, 2013, Terrafugia announced
the successor of Transition, called the TF-X. TF-X is a plug-in
hybrid tilt-rotor vehicle and would be the first fully autonomous
flying car. It has a range of 500 miles per flight and batteries are
rechargeable by the engine. It is expected to hit the market at least
six years after Transition (2021).
I think this has great capabilities and a lot of useful applications. The possibilities that could come of this technology could really change a lot. We could reach places we have never reached and trips to the Moon could be the norm in 2050 because of this technology.
ReplyDeleteWell........this is definitely NOT what I envisioned for flying cars. I always though of devices that run like hoverboards, no propellors, but maybe im way to far ito the future.......or maybe not (google).
ReplyDeleteVery primitive version of the soon to be hover car. One logistics of the blueprint of this car are hammered out it will be more realistic
ReplyDeleteThese are just baby steps towards a revolution! Anything is truly possible these days...the question is, how will this change society? Will our current means of transportation lose value?
ReplyDeleteI want one, technology is amazing
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