Flying cars and roadable airplanes are a dream that many have harbored over the years but few have actually realized. Only time will tell if Terrafugia Inc.’s Terrafugia Roadable Aircraft will be a commercial success or just another dream, but if anything else and as you can see from the video that follows below the break, it works.
The Woburn, Massachusetts, based company revealed the Transition at the 2012 New York International Auto Show, where it announced that the anticipated base price is $279,000 (€201,700).
Terrafugia said it is accepting orders with a refundable deposit of $10,000 (€7,500) or a non-refundable deposit of $2,500 (€1,900), with first deliveries expected towards the end of the year.
The street-legal Transition is described by the company as a two seat personal aircraft capable of driving on roads and highways and flying on unleaded automotive fuel.
The company says that in the air, it can cruise at 105mph (172km/h) and achieve a maximum speed of 115mph (185km/h. It is much slower on the road as it can only go up to 65mph (105km/h) – not that you’d want to go any faster…
The Transition can cover a distance of up to 490 miles in the air (787 kilometers) and comes equipped with a “full vehicle parachute,” allegedly designed to land the entire aircraft, according to Terrafugia.
The Transition completed its first flight at the Plattsburgh International Airport in Plattsburgh, NY on March 23, 2012.
The Massachusetts company says that potential buyers can get the necessary Sport Pilot license to be able to fly the Transition in as little as 20 hours of flight time.
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