Flying Cars: Terrafugia’s Transition
Those who know me, know I have an absolute obsession with flight. From that first view as young boy looking up into the blue sky and seeing a 727 leave amazing contrails, I was absolutely hooked. I love looking at planes, jumping out of them, talking shit about design, and still grasp to the hope that affordable personal air transportation will be available in my lifetime. I also have a obsession with cars, so when I saw Terrafugia’s new Transition flying car you can understand why I vomited in my own mouth a little bit.
I mean… just look at it.
Terrafugia Transition Taking Off
When I was jumping out of planes on an almost daily basis a few years back, we sometimes flew in the FC.7 SkyVan. Until this morning, I was convinced that the SkyVan was one of the ugliest aircraft. Functional, don’t get me wrong, but just not sexy in any way. The Transition looks like someone took their parents’ old VW bug and threw some folding wings on it.
I’ve always loved the concept of a flying car. I mean hell, the Rough Guides travel book series says we have 5.7 million miles of paved roads in the US alone. Using even a small fraction of those as a runway sounds like a great idea. However, in practice, no one has been able to make a flying car cost effective or even remotely available to the general population.
With an anticipated cost of $194,000 according to their website, this too is way out of line, even for an LSA. I would rather spend my money on a plane that does a great job at being a plane, and a car that does a great job of being a car. In Terrafugia’s case, I think we have a flying car that is mediocre as an aircraft and even more mediocre as a car.
KP’s recomendation to you: Take that $194,000 and spend it on a top of the line, all-composite Flight Design CT and you’ll have a much better aircraft PLUS enough leftover to buy a Porsche Boxster to have fun on the ground.
