No rail service? Bring on the $280K flying car

[CHamilton]

This Flying Car Could Soon Be Yours for $279,000

It seems like something out of The Jetsons, but it's real. Or at least it will be soon.

Terrafugia is perhaps just a few regulations and one very powerful battery away from clearing most of the hurdles it needs to create a flying car that consumers in the market for the equivalent of a super luxury sedan could afford.

...

The Transition: Prototype for the Terrafugia Vision

With a cruising speed of 100 miles per hour in the air and gas mileage of about 35 to the gallon on the ground, Terrafugia's first model of flying car exists already.

"We're flying a second-generation prototype, right now," Dietrich said of the Transition. "But yes, it's beyond the proof of concept stage."

The Transition is basically a small general-aviation airplane that can fold up its wings with the push of a button. It runs on normal automative gasoline — about 30% less expensive than aviation fuel (its range is about 410 miles plus a 30-minute reserve). Fly the Transition to a small airport, land, and the wings withdraw in less than a minute. Its propeller disengages and its rear-wheel drive turns on. At that point, you're street legal and ready to roll. At home, the Transition is designed to fit within a single-car garage.

 

[fairviewroad]

Other than a few hobbyists I can't see the market for this. Most people wouldn't find it very practical to commute, at least

for their current commute. By the time you drive to an airport, fly (at speeds not much faster than an interstate highway), land, then

drive to your office, it's hard to see how this would save you any time.

OTOH, I guess it might make it possible for people to move, say, 100 miles away from "the city" where land might be cheaper. But I still

think it only works if you happen to live and work close to an airport. Most jobs in a city core fail the second part of that test.

 

[Anderson]

About the only plausible market I could think of would be long-distance commuters into DC or Chicago, and only then if they could wrangle a slot at National or Midway. In that case, flying in, parking, and taking transit the rest of the way in might make sense. Of course, in an alternate reality where you still had the waterfront airport in Chicago...

 

[George Harris]

This is resurrection of an idea of the 1950's. Quite a few were built, but so far as I know it never got very far. There were many practical issues. I think they could be summed primarily as being: Those features necessary for it to be a plane kept from being a good car and, Those features neccessary for it to be a car kept it from being a good plane.

 

[railiner]

I agree that this is just a rich man's toy. Flying car concept vehicles. have been around almost as long as cars and planes have, and they have never "taken off" so to speak.

The closest any 'combination vehicle' ever came to a commercial success, was the old DAF amphibian car, that converted to a boat. There were close to 4,000 of them built

between 1961 and 1968. They were a neat way to avoid paying bridge tolls, provided you could find suitable launch ramps, and the water crossing was relatively calm without a swift current....