Apparently, where we’re going we do need roads. "You've got to be looking forward," he says.Though 2015 was supposed to be the year we’d all be zipping around in our flying cars, the local technology and innovation conference named after the airborne automobile won’t be returning to Milwaukee this year. The TF-X is the "next logical progression" and the company's engineers - it has 22 employees, about half of whom are engineers - will be able to turn to its development as they finish up work on the Transition. Engines are becoming more compact and powerful.
#HOVER CAR 2015 SKIN#
Carbon-fiber for the skin is both lighter and stronger than metals. Likewise, Paul Moller, whose Moller International has worked for years to bring a flying car to production, says he knows the difficulties of building the new design, but that Terrafugia is a "pretty impressive" company that might be able to pull it off.īut Gersh says breakthroughs in both materials and technology make the concept possible. "They have a track record of doing what they say. "I would caution anyone from saying this is science fiction," Brown says. While the idea might easily be written off as pie-in-the-sky, he says Terrafugia can't be written off. The tilt-rotor concept will be complicated because of both the added cost of creating such a craft and dealing with the takeoff noise, says John Brown, editor of the Roadable Times, which keeps tabs on the quest to build a flying car. Observers say the new craft appears to incorporate lessons from Terrafugia's participation in a Defense Department project to develop a flying Army jeep a couple of years ago.
The Transition still has a price tag of $279,000. Complicating the process: The driveable plane has to meet the stringent safety requirements for both an aircraft and a car. Plans are for it to use a "plug-in hybrid electric" powerplant.īut even though the company says it has more than 100 orders and has pushed back delivery dates, he says another generation is in the works to make further improvements before any can be delivered.
#HOVER CAR 2015 SERIES#
It's the same kind of technology that is found in the Marines' V-22 Osprey, a transport now in common use, though it got off to rocky start with a series of accidents during development. The props would then rotate from a vertical to a horizontal position for regular flight. The car would lift off nearly vertically using propellers on its stubby wings.
#HOVER CAR 2015 DRIVERS#
But instead of requiring drivers to find a runway, they could merely head to the local helipad - or a parking lot - and take off using tilt-rotor technology. Like its winged Transition flying car, its first product that is now scheduled for delivery in 2015, Terrafugia's TF-X would drive like a car on the ground, then take to the air like a plane.
The new design would take off like a helicopter and fly like a plane.
Terrafugia is showing off its design for new driveable aircraft.
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