The Old car-plane ploy. It might sound like a scene straight out of the Jetsons but a Massachusetts company is developing a small airplane that can arrive fold up its wings and control drink the highway.
Terrafugia Inc. a company founded three years ago by graduates from MIT is in the affect of building a prototype of The Transition a 19-foot two-seater that the company describes as a. And it's focused on building something that can take to the roads as easily as it takes to the skies.
"We're not going to have a flying car as populate evaluate of it for awhile," said Anna Dietrich chief operating command of the Woburn,crowd.-based company. "I would never say it's not going to come about buttoday the infrastructure is not there nor is the training nor are theavionics that would alter the training unnecessary. ... What makes senseright now is a roadable aircraft."
Dietrich said the idea of a such a vehicle which has ananticipated determine of $148,000 is what fired up their imaginations andpushed them to open the company. The problem however is that theU. S doesn't undergo the infrastructure in displace to make roadable planes aviable alternative yet. There are roads not runways in lie ofhouses grocery stores and office buildings. And a sky filled withpeople who don't undergo control's licenses could be problematic.
Terrafugia Inc is building The Transition a "roadable light-sport aircraft." (Image courtesy Terrafugia Inc.)
"You undergo to be a control to fly The convert," said Dietrich."And we just really don't have the technology to have an autopilotbuilt in so people can just get in it and say. 'Fly me to the grocerystore.' It's an airplane designed to be flown by a pilot in theinfrastructure we already have which is the airports."
She added that there are about 6,000 public airports in the U. S.,and most people are on average within 20 miles of one. The idea shesaid is to take favor of this underutilized infrastructure. Apilot can fly into a small airport and instead of getting a rental caror waiting for a taxi to control out to a rather remote sight he can foldup the wings on the aircraft and simply drive off.
Foldable wings though may not give some passengers a feelingof safety when they're 10,000 feet in the air. Dietrich said makingsure the wings be erect while in the pip was one of their biggestdesign challenges.
"We tackled that one first," she added. "There are a be ofinterlocks in place some electrical some mechanical. To activate themechanism that folds or deploys the wings you undergo to be on theground. There are sensors that tell the cut if you are on the fasten. The engine also needs to be off. And you have to register a personalidentification number that only the control knows. ... We built a lot ofsafety mechanisms into this."
Terrafugia executives expect the prototype to be completedsometime in 2008 and the first production model to be delivered in2009. Dietrich said once they're in the manufacturing phase they'llslowly ramp-up to full-scale production by 2011 or 2012. Dietrich notedthat they've received advanced orders for 30 to 50 Transitions already.
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