Comments

Keep up the good work, Terrafugia! Looks like you will have a car that flies, and a plane that is roadable! I'm very certain that the Transition will fly, and we will see these carplanes or planecars (or whatever their generic name becomes) in the air and on the road soon. They will not become as common as Toyotas or even Mini Coopers. There will be a small nitche market for them I think. They don't have to be an excellent car and an excellent plane - nor will they be. But there will be some people that the Transition is just what they want. As a pilot, engineer, an Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) member, and one who has been to the EAA Conventions in Oshkosh and Lakeland a few times, I've seen lots of small companies with good ideas, grand plans and always limited on funds to get their project to 100% completion. Usually there are one or more technical "gotchas" in their design. The Transition may have a few of these - maybe the insurance problem (very expensive if someone dings your door) and problems with stability on the road. But hopefully Terrafugia will persevere. Tackling problems one by one works. Project schedules slip, but that's ok, as long as the money holds out. As an aircraft, it certainly is not going to be a responsive, sports aircraft. In pilots lingo, it will be a pig. That's ok, it will be a very cool pig. It will fly, just not as agile and fun as a Glasair or Pitts. As a car, it will be a bit squirrely, I predict. Drivers will want to keep to the back roads and side streets. But gust from a passing 18 wheeler doing 65 in a 45 may send the Transition's driver a hell of a scare. Hopefully the designer's have addressed these aerodynamic forces adequately. The NHTSA (highway safety folks) will no doubt be looking at these scenarios before they give it the thumbs up. Way back in 1949, Molt Taylor completed his first Aerocar - the only certified airplane (by the US CAA - now the FAA) ever built that could also drive on highways. It is a dream that still lives. I wish the engineers at Terrafugia all the luck in the world at keeping this dream alive. I hope that they have great success with the Transition. I hope we get to see a Transition II, III, and IV. But most of all, I hope that I get to fly one!