Flying Car Has First Flight

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Mar 18th 2009 at 11:02PM

One of the many flying car prototypes has had its first flight. We've been following the story of Terrafugia since 2006 when the company first started taking reservations for the flying car known as the Transition.

Now Terrafugia has announced its successful first flight at Plattsburgh International Airport in Plattsburgh, New York. The Transition is a two-seat aircraft with a propeller which can take off and land at local airports and can drive on any road. Terrafugia says the plane can turn back into a car in under 30 seconds. It can cruise up to 450 miles at over 115 miles per hour. And although it looks like it is more plane than car it can fit into a standard garage and is powered by unleaded gas from a regular gas station. The driver of the Transitiion will require a Sport Pilot license.

Up next for the Transition is increased flight and drive testing and a pre-production prototype will be built and certified before first delivery. Terrafugia has been taking reservations since 2006 when it had a projected price of $148,000. Back then it had a projected ready date of 2009 but that date has now been pushed to 2011.

[via Aero-News Network]

Tags: flying car, FlyingCar, terrafugia