The Terrafugia Transition – A New Twist on Hybrid Cars

Hybrids get a lot of press these days. But kudos to startup Terrafugia for daring to take things up one or two notches with the Transition – a vehicle that can travel in both air and on roads.

So is it a flying car or a plane that can drive? Technically the Transition is a “roadable” airplane. No matter. The idea behind Terrafugia’s new creation is that you park your Transition in your own driveway and you  commute is to the nearby airstrip for takeoff. No rental car needed at your destination – just convert back to driving mode and head to wherever you’re going on surface streets.

Terrafugia says the Transition is aimed at licensed pilots who need to travel between 100 and 500 miles at a crack. It’s definitely not for flying down to the mailbox or grabbing groceries and it won’t be too much use escaping from the cops during a high-speed chase.

Bad weather coming? No problem – land at the nearest airstrip and continue your journey on the ground. And say goodbye to rental cars at your destination.

Project Status

The Transition concept was formed back in 2006 by MIT engineers and may be ready to bear fruit soon in the form of actual production models to consumers – in late 2009. Not bad for such a radical concept.

Terrafugia admits they are still perfecting the one-touch folding wing mechanism and a power train that can convert smoothly between flying-mode and driving-mode but have developed proofs-of-concept solutions for these designs that offer reason for optimism.

Price & Availability

Only $148,000 gets you a two-seat vehicle with a 450+ mile range in the air and 25 MPG on earth. At the time of this writing Terrafugia has already taken roughly 30 orders for the Transition but no firm launch date has been provided. Safe to say you have a bit of time yet to get that pilot’s license so you’re ready when the Transition is ready.

Further Reading

Read Terrafugia’s page on the Transition vehicle.

The Register posted a detailed story on the Transition and talks about other emerging vehicle options such as NASA’s PAV (Personal Air Vehicle) concept.

Check the MIT Technology Review writeup.