Terrafugia Transition completes successful first flight
Terrafugia Ttansition first flight – Click above for image gallery
While only the passing of time will tell if today's first registered flight of the Terrafugia Transition measures up to such important milestones of aviation as the Wright brothers' maiden voyage at Kitty Hawk in 1903, it was most definitely a significant marker in the development of the flying car. While there have been many attempts to develop a flying car in the past, the Terrafugia Transition might be the most promising in the modern era. Autoblog first reported on it back in early 2006 when the prototype debuted, and the project spearheaded by five pilots, all of whom graduated from MIT, has come a long way since.
The Transition transforms between road use and flight by folding down its wings, which takes just 30 seconds. With its wings retracted, the Transition is compact enough to fit in a normal-sized garage, which means owners won't have to rent hangar space at their local airport. Indeed, they can just drive the Transition home, as it uses the same gas engine (of unknown displacement) to power its front wheels on the road as it does its propellor when in flight.
Today's test flight at the Plattsburgh International Airport in New York went well with Phil Meteer, Colonel, USAFR, at the controls. Terrafugia claims the Transition can fly up to 450 miles at over 115 mph, and since it is categorized as a Light Sport Aircraft by the FAA, a Sport Pilot license will be required to fly one. Check out the gallery below for images from today's flight, as well as videos of Terrafugia's own maiden voyage after the jump.
Gallery: Terrafugia Transition - First Flight
[Source: Terrafugia]
PRESS RELEASE
Historic Takeoff Makes "Flying Car" a Reality
The Transition® Roadable Aircraft Completes
Successful First Flight
Boston, MA – March 18, 2009: Terrafugia, Inc., a game-changing aircraft company, announced today the first flight of its Transition® Roadable Aircraft Proof of Concept. Often referred to as a "flying car", the Transition® is a two-seat aircraft designed to take off and land at local airports and drive on any road. Transforming from plane to car takes the pilot less than 30 seconds.
An historic milestone for aviation, the flight comes after six months of static, road and taxi testing. The Transition® cruises up to 450 mi at over 115 mph, can drive at highway speeds on the road, and fits in a standard household garage. The vehicle has front wheel drive on the road and a propeller for flight. Both modes are powered by unleaded gasoline from a regular gas station.
"This breakthrough changes the world of personal mobility. Travel now becomes a hassle-free integrated land-air experience. It's what aviation enthusiasts have been striving for since 1918," says Carl Dietrich, CEO of Terrafugia.
By giving pilots a convenient ground transportation option, the Transition® reduces the cost, hassle, and weather sensitivity of personal aviation. It also increases safety by incorporating automotive crash structures and allowing pilots to drive under bad weather.
For its first flight, the Transition® was flown by Phil Meteer, Colonel, USAFR (Retired) at Plattsburgh International Airport in Plattsburgh, NY. The chase aircraft was piloted by Giora Guth.
Categorized as a Light Sport Aircraft, the Transition® requires a Sport Pilot license to fly. The Proof of Concept will undergo additional advanced flight and drive testing and a pre-production prototype will be built and certified before first delivery. Refundable airframe reservations are being accepted.
Terrafugia (terra-FOO-gee-ah), based in Woburn, MA, is comprised of a team of award-winning engineers who have been advancing the state of personal aircraft since 2006. Founded by five pilots who are graduates of MIT and supported by a world-class network of advisors and private investors, Terrafugia's mission is the innovative expansion of personal mobility. "Terrafugia" is Latin for "escape from land."
The Transition® will temporarily be on exhibit at the Museum of Science, Boston on March 18, 2009.
Terrafugia would like to acknowledge and thank its corporate sponsors: SolidWorks Corporation and CableOrganizer.com. Additionally, the following business partners have contributed to a successful first flight by furnishing equipment and services: Garmin International, Dynon Avionics, CO Guardian, David Clark Company, Bose Corporation, Icom Inc. and Air Graphics LLC.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
JD 4:04PM (3/18/2009)
Actually it's called the Terrafugia Transition, not Transmission.
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Seminole 4:06PM (3/18/2009)
Still hung over from St. Paddies day John? Haha, its the Transition, not the Transmission.
That said, I WANT!
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Robert Goldman 4:14PM (3/18/2009)
Wow, that's the first time I've ever seen something in the air which makes a Cesna 172 look sleek by comparison.
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steve-o 4:14PM (3/18/2009)
even though it can fly, its still not better than a GT-R
>_<
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firetruckfiretruck 4:21PM (3/18/2009)
Aston Martin has had this technology for quite some time, though it is less developed ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl2UUunlI2Q
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EU_reader 4:22PM (3/18/2009)
They should have co-operated with the aptera people. The aptera (wich coincidentally is greek for 'no wings') looks just like this, but then without wings (duh)
The same front wheel design in separate wheel housings, and almost exactly the same tapered rear end.
Which proves again and again that these shapes are the most aerodynamically possible. (aptera, this thing) It's no average joe who put this together, but MIT graduates.
If you don't want to fly, it's again an indication how promising the aptera is, and how it could be in some way the car of the future.
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Yikes 4:53PM (3/18/2009)
I saw the same thing, an Aptera.
MikeofLA 4:30PM (3/18/2009)
It's NOT Flying... it's so ugly the earth is repelling it.
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dukeisduke 4:40PM (3/18/2009)
I'm okay with flying cars so long as you have to be a licensed pilot to operate one. The idea of the average driver operating a flying car scares the hell out of me. I don't want to be under a flying car when it falls out of the sky, due to a mid-air collision.
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Slizzo 4:46PM (3/18/2009)
Or because the "pilot" stalled the aircraft?
spacegravity4me 6:02PM (3/18/2009)
I've been waiting for the flying car to develop into more than just concepts for a long time. It has been one of my biggest dreams and obsessions to have one and see it come to fruition. It is a beautiful idea and I'm glad to see that it is gaining ground and becoming more and more functional and real. This still is far away from what I (and all the others) want, but it's a start. Now, what i don't like is all the people who say, "oh, you should have a pilots license... and I'm scerred of the stupid people!" Ok... I am too, but I'll be damned if I'll have one more thing, especially something I care about so much, be tainted by the morons of this stupid world we live in! People just let the few bad apples spoil everything! I'll admit, for a time, while this takes off(yes pun intended!) people should have a pilots licenses, but only because at this moment they are more or less planes. Ideally, they won't be. The tech will advance and then we can have everything controlled by computer so all you little worry warts out there can rest easier and go back to not having any faith in anyone at all. SO... for now, I slightly agree until we have real flying cars, but I'm not happy with how regulated and restricted the sky is today, I don't want it getting worse. Then again maybe the dumb one's would die off quickly and leave the rest of us to live our lives in peace and what at least sorta feels like self government. SO... yea... I need a hobby don't I? I gotta go study for a test or my life is going nowhere. Just do me a favor and ignore the extremely obvious personal stuff that is soaking into my writing today and give me your opinion on politics or freedom so I do have to worry about checking this later for fear of people bashing me. I only want to see the world get better, smarter, and more free and unrestricted. Peace out fershizzles. SPACE
P.S. One day people will complain that we don't have free skies. We don't own it.
Robert Goldman 6:32PM (3/18/2009)
The comments about having a pilots license are 100 percent valid. An airplane is exponentially more difficult to fly than a car is to drive. We do not yet have a self driving car in commercial distribution. A self directing airplane is much further out. Talk all you want about computer technology, but our current air traffic control system is running on vacuum tube technology. The infrastructure cost for a self directing air traffic system with self flying planes would bury us.
I love the Jetsons as much as the next guy, but a flying car will never be as good as a dedicated car or dedicated airplane. The requirements, and regulatory environment are far too different. To make a street legal car of this thing would require additional weight which will take it out of the sport license parameters.
Congratulations to the MIT guys who've made it fly, but this thing is little more than an engineering exercise.
Peter Rockwell 7:00PM (3/18/2009)
I agree! Most drivers have their hands full driving in two dimensions; I can't imagine them trying to drive in three!
johncuyle 4:43AM (3/19/2009)
Couple points: They're trying to build it as a light sport aircraft. The requirements for getting a sport license are much lower than for a full pilot's license. So this is at least in the spirit of making flight yet more accessible.
Second, I can't imagine anyone could fly it safely regularly without at least the minimal training required to get a sport pilot's license. Flying is fundamentally different than driving in its failure case. That is, if you have a problem driving, any problem, about the worst case scenario is that you bring the car to a stop in a safe location at a reasonable rate of deceleration. It's on the ground so, really, not much can go wrong. A plane in flight is almost completely at the mercy of the fluid in which it is suspended, and the only thing keeping it there is the power from the engine. Something goes wrong and you have a real problem. Environmental conditions which are non-threatening in a car or which, at worst, mean slowing down are considered genuine emergency conditions in a LSA. You might try wandering over to the FAA's website. Most of the various handbooks relating to flight are available as free* downloads. Note the volume of material on the weather.
Third, even under the best conditions, flying is hard. I spent most of my life playing flight simulators and reading books and magazines about flight and even then I wasn't really prepared. Driving a car well (think: racing) is also hard, but the average person driving down the freeway with a slushbox can pretty well hamfist it. The pedal on the right makes it go faster. The one on the left makes it slow down. The wheel aims it. Speed is more or less a convenience in a car and the only thing you really have to worry about to not be too much of a menace to society is control around one axis. A plane has three axes plus throttle to worry about. Slowing down, speding up, and turning require input to all four.
That said, getting a pilot's license is not that hard. You can do it, legally, with 35 hours of flight time. Total time investment is on the order of one 5 credit college class, which is roughly the same amount of time as a driver's ed course in highschool.
As for technology, that's more a government problem than anything. The average airplane still has fixed timing (not just not electronic ignition, fixed. No advance mechanism. At all.) a carburetor (mechanical fuel injection if you're lucky. Like on a 1955 Mercedes.) and air cooling (straight out of the 30's) and requires 100 octane leaded fuel just to be able to not blow the paltry 9:1 compression ratio engines apart. Advanced computer controlled anything seems unlikely when the FAA can't even be bothered to consider certifying head designs newer than 1965...
*Your taxes paid for it.
Edmond Dantes 5:04PM (3/18/2009)
What's the 'Ring time?
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puzzled 5:25PM (3/18/2009)
I would love to see something like the car in (back to the future). It doesn't have to fly high. Just hover 4 feet off of the ground. Have it be more like a hover craft. We all know we will always need roads. So if it only hoverd off the ground by say 4 feet then your still using current traffic setups. Hey you'd still be lower than the lifted pickup trucks!!
You know if people are willing to pay 1 million plus for the veryon(not sure how to spell it) there would be people willing to pay for an acutall hover car that looked just like and performed just like an actual car. Remember the pic autoblog had up here the other week that had the future AUDI concept? Something like that would work as well, as long has it hoverd. Think of the green people..... No rubber tires to waste!!!!
I have come to the conclusion there will never be a flying or hover car.
But hey we can all dream! LOL.
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jjonke5 5:41PM (3/18/2009)
that thing is terrafugly
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Tourian 6:22PM (3/18/2009)
When's the hyrbid version coming?
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Richard 6:55PM (3/18/2009)
Guys, this isn't a flying car. Its a (potentially) street-legal airplane. Huge difference. And a pretty durn useful piece of kit if it comes to fruition, for that matter.
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RITmusic2k 7:25PM (3/18/2009)
I was just going to say this! It's not a flying car, it's a rolling airplane.
In my book, it's not a flying car until it looks like a car, and flies.