Could We Be Driving/Piloting This Flying Car In A Few Years?
Vertical takeoff. Hybrid power. Automatic landing. See it in action as it flies and drives.
We’ve been following the progress of Terrafugia, the Massachusetts-based creator of several (prototype) flying cars, for a while, despite the company never having actually released one. But that hasn’t stopped the company from “announcing its vision for the future of personal transportation”: a plug-in flying car.
Terrafugia’s Transition is the company’s most famous creation. It’s more of a drivable plane than a flying car, really, but it’s gotten FAA certification and is just about the closest we’ve gotten to a flying car so far. The Transition hasn’t gotten past the prototype stage, but Terrafugia has chosen to steamroll past that and show off what they think will be coming a generation or two from now: the TF-X.
The TF-X would be a hybrid plug-in electric vehicle, capable of vertical takeoffs like a helicopter, but able to adjust its propellers from an upright position to a horizontal position so it can fly like a plane. The video is oddly specific about specs, considering this thing is completely conceptual, but it claims the vehicle will have automatic takeoffs and landings, and reach speeds of 200mph with a range of 500 miles.