Flying Cars

We have been following the story of the Terrafugia Transition “flying car” for some time now but recently the Daily Telegraph’s Motoring News section had an update which noted that the flying car will soon go into production thanks to the FAA’s granting of a "light aircraft" designation for the aircraft/car. Normally, a light aircraft can weigh no more than 1,200 pounds but the Terrafugia Transition weighs 1,320 pounds due to the need to have car-related safety features like airbags. Hence, more people will now be able to fly the aircraft.

So far, about 70 people have placed a deposit of $10,000 (£6,650) on the aircraft which will sell for US$194,000 (£129,000) – not a bad price considering its versatility and the fact that it gets a respectable 30 miles per gallon!

The Wall Street Journal recently reprinted an article from www.mentalfloss.com that outlined several modern flying car or motorcycle designs (Up, Up, and Away! Seven Modern Flying Car Designs). Designs profiled include the AFA Sokol A400, The Milner AirCar, Macro SkyRider XR2, Samson SkyBike, PAL-V One, Parajet SkyCar and Terrafugia Transition. I particularly like the the Sokol A400, which looks like a sports car and is projected to retail for US$300,000-400,000.

However, the designs profiled are still largely in the engineering design or prototype stage. Nevertheless, for anyone who has ever dreamed of having a automobile that can also fly, that dream will soon be a reality.