The Terrafugia flying car, TF-X, will be a reality in just two years. The Massachusetts-based company says that a full-size prototype of its four-passenger TF-X is expected to be ready for testing by 2018—but won’t be available for sale until 2025.
Terrafugia is currently implementing the TF-X project, designed to be the flying car. The US firm will focus the TF-X™ program with intelligible objectives that enhance the safety, simplicity, and convenience of personal transportation.
Equipped with fold-out wings that have twin electric motors on each side, the £183,000 aircraft can adapt a horizontal position for flight and a vertical position for takeoff and landing. Powered by a 300 hp engine, the flying car will produce a cruising speed of 200 mph along with a 500-mile flight range.
The car will be semi-autonomous and owners will need both a pilot and a driver’s licence to operate the road-legal airplane. Moreover owners will have to take a short training program; they’ll need to obtain 20 hours of flying time to cruise the planned four-person TF-X. Terrafugia claims the vehicle will be significantly easier to learn to fly than a traditional aircraft, and that controlling it will be similar to simply steering a normal car.
The vehicle will use computer-controls so that passengers can simply type in a destination before taking off. The TF-X operator will have final say over whether an approved landing zone is safe to land, or they may abort the landing attempt at any time if the area seems unsafe. Additionally, the TF-X will be capable of being parked in a home garage like an ordinary car.
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The company has already received FAA approval to begin testing the TF-X, although construction of the prototype is still in progress.
Carl Dietrich, Samuel Schweighart, Anna Mracek Dietrich and Alex Min make the founding team behind the creation. They call the Transition “our vision for the future of personal transportation.”We have been dreaming about flying cars since the turn of the 20th century. The Transition street-legal airplane is the first step on the road to the practical flying car.
They stated “We’re starting with proven technology and our product road map is designed to make personal aviation progressively safer and more accessible to a broader segment of the population.”
Image Credit: Terrafugia
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