July 30--Oshkosh --A car that will likely cost close to $300,000 and won't roll off the assembly line for a couple of more years must be pretty special.
The Terrafugia Transition offers a few bells and whistles for the sky-high price tag -- it's a car that flies. Or a plane that can be driven on the interstate.
"Wow. Looks like fun," said Phil Wade of Belleville, Mich., as he watched the Terrafugia Transition fly Monday during the afternoon air show on the first day of EAA AirVenture.
Wade wasn't buying, just snapping pictures with his digital camera.
"I own one plane. That's enough. It's very unique, though," said Wade, who owns a Flight Design Light Sport airplane and a Chrysler minivan.
The Massachusetts-based company has displayed its prototypes for its car-plane hybrid at AirVenture for eight years. This year for the first time the Terrafugia Transition flew and drove. Monday's AirVenture crowd was the first to see the Transition fly in public.
While the weeklong aviation convention features hundreds of old planes from vintage biplanes to World War II bombers and fighters, it's also one of the premier events in the world for the unveiling of new aviation technology, including vehicles that fly and drive.
Terrafugia is hoping to market its drivable aircraft to pilots who hate being grounded by bad weather or have difficulty traveling after they land. Pilots flying into small airports usually are stuck there unless they can catch a cab or rent a car.
"It's the convenience of having your car and plane in one package," said Richard Gersh, Terrafugia vice president of business development. "It's the next 'wow' car."
Flying cars are not new. Molt Taylor's 1949 Aerocar is on display at the AirVenture museum. But Taylor removed the wings from his plane and hauled them behind the car when it tooled down roads. Terrafugia engineers wanted things much easier for Transition owners, so they designed wings that fold up next to the car. That makes it small enough to travel down the highway and park in a one-car garage.
The projected price tag is $279,000, with more than 100 folks who have already paid the $10,000 refundable deposit. Gersh said the company expects to build a third-generation prototype -- the second generation is flying and on display at AirVenture -- and then begin production for sale in 2015 or '16.
It's designed to cruise at 100 mph in the air with a range of 410 miles with half an hour of reserve fuel; on terra firma it can travel up to 65 mph with fuel efficiency of 35 miles per gallon.
It flew for 10 minutes, slow and low over the crowd, in the skies over Oshkosh on Monday, then landing, folding up its wings and driving down the taxiway.
It runs on unleaded gas, not the pricier aviation fuel, which means owners can gas up at their local service station.
The benefits? When weather turns bad, Transition pilots won't be grounded like other small planes -- they can drive to their destination or to an area where the weather is good for flying. There's no reason to rent hangar space -- just park it at home. And it could make the commute to work a breeze, flying over backed-up traffic.
"We don't know the market yet. A lot of people are waiting to see it fly," Gersh said. "But if you see one flying, that's the best advertising."
Motorcycle in the belly
Meanwhile, David Shelton, owner and founder of Illinois-based MotoPOD, also knows the grumblings of pilots who are grounded by storms and lack of transportation once they reach their destination. So he designed a storage compartment containing a street-legal motorcycle that takes two minutes to unload from underneath a plane and set up for traveling down the highway.
Noting that one out of five private pilots also drives a motorcycle, Shelton's invention "combines their hobbies," he said Monday afternoon at his booth in one of the large display buildings at AirVenture. "When you add the motorcycle, you can fly somewhere and then drive to a restaurant or hotel."
Shelton modified a Yamaha XT225 motorcycle with folding handlebars, removable front wheel, carbon fiber fender and non-spill plumbing -- leaking motorcycle fuel would be a serious problem -- to make it lighter and smaller to fit inside the cargo pod. It adds 300 pounds of extra weight to planes and costs $15,000 for the storage compartment and motorcycle.
The Penn State aerospace engineering graduate started the company in his garage in 2007 and now has customers in the United States and three foreign countries. One of his Texas customers, who flies his private plane for business, had cars parked at several airports where he frequently flew so he could drive to his destination once he landed. But after buying Shelton's MotoPOD and motorcycle, he got rid of the cars and now uses the motorcycle to travel.
The MotoPOD is certified only for a Van's RV-10 single-engine home-built plane, but Shelton is seeking FAA certification for Cirrus aircraft with plans to get certification for other aircraft.
The motorcycle has "just enough power to get two adults down the highway at 80 mph and still light enough to carry on a plane," Shelton said.
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