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Why is this such news when Terrafugia has been working on a real flying car for a while now.

Now, how sure am I that it'll ever actually ship. Um, not all that sure. But at least it's a real flying car, compared to this stupid device.

https://www.terrafugia.com/the...

These guys were allegedly close, but still vapor from what I can tell (and targeting $300,000).

https://www.terrafugia.com/abo...

Flying cars you say? Oh, yeah, of course we don't have those! What a silly idea!

Because nobody is doing flying cars. And, nobody else is, either.

If it were anyone else, I would be a bit skeptical...

My main point was that JoshuaZ is correct that "The technical problems with this are immense." That doesn't mean it could never, ever work - but it does mean that this statement is completely wrong: "There's no reason electric planes can't also have twice the performance, and a quarter of the range of planes, now."

There are good reasons it can't be done with current technology (for large, high speed planes like Musk was talking about). If this changes, it will be because of one or more major technical breakthroughs.

Tripling battery density would make it viable on shorter flights, perhaps even cost effective.

No, it wouldn't. Recharging will be very expensive and hard to do safely.

Even if you succeed in solving the recharging problem, there is simply no significant advantage to using pure-battery power, to make up for the massive disadvantages. (Hybrid systems like the Terrafugia TF-X could make sense, though.)

If you want an alternative to fossil fuels for full-sized passenger and cargo planes, synthetic fuels are a far more sensible direction to explore.

I've been following the development of the Transition with the hope of having one. Right as the Transition looked like it was actually going to be a thing that not only flew but might actually be sold at some point, they announced this turd bomb of the TF-X with it's magical properties.

As soon as I saw the announcement, I was like WTF? From the description I wondered if it was going to be made of unicorn farts or faerie dust...

My guess is that their flying car design was scooped by the far better looking and more ready AeroMobil and they panicked.

I've been following the development of the Transition with the hope of having one. Right as the Transition looked like it was actually going to be a thing that not only flew but might actually be sold at some point, they announced this turd bomb of the TF-X with it's magical properties.

As soon as I saw the announcement, I was like WTF? From the description I wondered if it was going to be made of unicorn farts or faerie dust...

My guess is that their flying car design was scooped by the far better looking and more ready AeroMobil and they panicked.

Got another example of "far off into the future"?

Fusion power
Flying car
Another flying car

This isn't a "flying car", it's a "roadable airplane", just like the Terrefugia Transition: http://www.terrafugia.com/airc...

It is licensed as an airplane, with many, MANY exceptions when licensed as a ground vehicle. The idea is that you drive it a short distance to an airport, then take off and fly as an airplane. Then drive a short distance to somewhere at the other end. It's not meant to be driven even as much as a high-end sports car on the ground. It's mean as "get to airport, fly, get to destination."

As for "production-ready", Terrefugia claims theirs is "production-ready," too...

Aiming for a future where we use less energy than we do now is backwards. I'm not advocating that making existing systems more efficient is a bad thing at all, but to power things that will progress society will require more energy per person consumed than we do now regardless.

Wireless power requires 60% more base power. The often dismissed as impossible flying cars require at least 1.5MW per person. One day it is not far fetched to think we will replace the microwave with a device that can assemble atoms and completely replace farming, which will take serious power. This is what I think even the solar/wind/geothermal people who don't want to move back into caves intuitively understand is the kind of changes that will occur sometime in the future.

Solar panels belong in space. They are much less efficient than hydro-electric, which is about as efficient as coal, which is 6 million times less energy dense than nuclear fission, which is less energy dense than nuclear fusion, which is only 2 orders of magnitude less efficient than antimatter-matter reactions. Spread out to consumers, solar panels also produces a lot of waste that future generations will have to deal with.

you need to do some searching on the internet. and maybe wake up. :) I mean that in all light warmheartedness. It's happening.

Oops forgot the link: http://www.terrafugia.com/tfx-vision

In the 47 years I have spent on this rock, I have yet to see a futurist reliably predict the future.

If you mean successfully predicted a technology, social movement, or political change, then many Science Fiction authors fit the bill.

French author Jules Verne (often called the father of Science Fiction), for instance, predicted Cell Phones, the Nuclear Submarine, that _America_ would land on the Moon, the return splashdown (with a spookily accurate estimation of the total cost), correctly predicted the number of Astronauts that were sent, and seems to describe WEIGHTLESSNESS, writing that the astronaut's "...feet no longer clung to the floor". All 100+ years before the fact(s).

In 1898 Mark Twain predicted the World Wide Web (Internet), streaming video, Social Networking sites, blogs and discussion boards, all based on the phone system. Only a handful of years after the invention of the Telephone it'self.

H.G. Wells not only predicted the Atomic Bomb, but he coined the term "Atomic Bomb". He also predicted mutations as a danger from overexposure to uranium.

Even Gene Roddenberry predicted flip phones. (Can someone both predict and inspire the same thing?)

I'd say that SciFi authors, with some very specific predictions, have a better track record than Nostradamus and his ilk with their sweeping predictions.

Now if you mean someone who can tell you in detail what's the world will be like in 50 or a 100 years, you tell me, who does that?

Where the fuck is my flying car?

And you won't be getting a flying car until it can reliably fly itself, need no user maintenance, and not require a thorough going-over every other time you take it out. Oh, and can crash anywhere without endangering hundreds of lives. Until then it's called a helicopter, get a license and find places that have helipads and your golden.

Or, you could always look here: http://www.terrafugia.com/ Video: http://www.terrafugia.com/news/first-public-transition%C2%AE-demonstrations

Personally I suspect the flying car is going to catch-on like those Dick Tracy communicator watches http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dt2wrr.jpg did. It'll just be more trouble than it's worth, and it's job will be done better by something else.

In the 47 years I have spent on this rock, I have yet to see a futurist reliably predict the future.

If you mean successfully predicted a technology, social movement, or political change, then many Science Fiction authors fit the bill.

French author Jules Verne (often called the father of Science Fiction), for instance, predicted Cell Phones, the Nuclear Submarine, that _America_ would land on the Moon, the return splashdown (with a spookily accurate estimation of the total cost), correctly predicted the number of Astronauts that were sent, and seems to describe WEIGHTLESSNESS, writing that the astronaut's "...feet no longer clung to the floor". All 100+ years before the fact(s).

In 1898 Mark Twain predicted the World Wide Web (Internet), streaming video, Social Networking sites, blogs and discussion boards, all based on the phone system. Only a handful of years after the invention of the Telephone it'self.

H.G. Wells not only predicted the Atomic Bomb, but he coined the term "Atomic Bomb". He also predicted mutations as a danger from overexposure to uranium.

Even Gene Roddenberry predicted flip phones. (Can someone both predict and inspire the same thing?)

I'd say that SciFi authors, with some very specific predictions, have a better track record than Nostradamus and his ilk with their sweeping predictions.

Now if you mean someone who can tell you in detail what's the world will be like in 50 or a 100 years, you tell me, who does that?

Where the fuck is my flying car?

And you won't be getting a flying car until it can reliably fly itself, need no user maintenance, and not require a thorough going-over every other time you take it out. Oh, and can crash anywhere without endangering hundreds of lives. Until then it's called a helicopter, get a license and find places that have helipads and your golden.

Or, you could always look here: http://www.terrafugia.com/ Video: http://www.terrafugia.com/news/first-public-transition%C2%AE-demonstrations

Personally I suspect the flying car is going to catch-on like those Dick Tracy communicator watches http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dt2wrr.jpg did. It'll just be more trouble than it's worth, and it's job will be done better by something else.

http://www.terrafugia.com/aircraft/transitionR
Its not quite something you can buy today but you can put down a deposit and they have already passed all the regulatory hurdles and are soon to start production.
And yes it IS a car that flies. (although if you want to fly in it, you need to find a runway)

Pfft, that future is now!!1!

Not sure about this particular vehicle, but if this is anything like the Terrafugia Transition you have to come to a complete stop before you can deploy the wings, and they take a couple of minutes to deploy.

Already in the test flying phase, scheduled to start delivery 2013. http://terrafugia.com/

http://www.terrafugia.com/

(I haven't kept in the loop on it, but they built one that works and I think they even got all the appropriate green lights to actually make them)

So ... a Terrafugia then?

Where's my flying car? No, this one doesn't count.

"You forgot flying cars! In 20 years we should all have flying cars. And fusion. And holographic storage. And..."

We do have all those things more or less. Or is that the joke based on recent slashdot stories?
http://www.terrafugia.com/
GE 500GB holographics disks
Rossi Cold Fusion E-Cat
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-06-27/tech/fusion_1_hot-fusion-holy-grail-junk-mail?_s=PM:TECH

That's not a good example, as the Terrafugia is allowed to be driven on the road according to NHTSA. It has now been cleared for air and road use due to certain exemptions it has received specifically due to those challenges of making a dual use vehicle.

Here is the news release on it: http://www.terrafugia.com/news_media.html

Bill

What a horrible title but par for the course around here.

From the horses mouth:

Traditional laminated automotive safety glass would add significant weight to the Transition® and could fracture in such a way as to obscure the vision of the pilot in the event of a bird impact. This exemption allows the use of polycarbonate materials that provide comparable protection to the occupants at significant weight-saving without shattering or crazing – improving the safety of the Transition®. In the exemption text, NHTSA states: “We further conclude that the granting of an exemption from these requirements would be in the public interest and consistent with the objectives of traffic safety.” In 2010, the Transition® was granted an additional 110 pounds allowance by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in a prior exemption action by the DOT.

Also the full text of the exemption is here: http://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2011/06/29/2011-16222/terrafugia-inc-grant-of-application-for-temporary-exemption-from-certain-requirements-of-fmvss-no

Where's my goddamn flying car then?

Right here. I got a pretty good look at this at the EAA Airventure in Oshkosh WI last weekend. Pretty neat stuff.

Sure they do: http://www.terrafugia.com/

Personally, I'd like to see our military and NASA budgets switched. I would have said the same thing 30 years ago, and had it been done, we'd have anti-gravity and flying cars by now.

Well, we do actually have the flying car now, at least...

http://www.terrafugia.com/photogallery.html

This thing has nothing in common with pie in the sky "sky cars". It's just a light aircraft that happens to be able to drive on the road.

Sure they might go out of business for some reason, but it's not like they're promising moonbeams and fairy dust - they have a working prototype and there must be plenty of guys out there who both want and can afford something like this. Since the design is already worked out and approved then it seems all they need to do now is start building the things.

http://www.terrafugia.com/newsreleases.html
http://www.terrafugia.com/newsreleases.html#110

I hope these people can engineer better than they can spell. Maybe a slashdot editor is running their site..

http://www.terrafugia.com/newsreleases.html
http://www.terrafugia.com/newsreleases.html#110

I hope these people can engineer better than they can spell. Maybe a slashdot editor is running their site..

Well the flying car is already here and here. So we'll be getting cheap solar soon.

Here is one. Oh, here is another. You must not be looking very hard.

Have you looked at the Terrafugia?

If above link does not work: http://www.terrafugia.com/

Your flying car is over at Terrafugia.

Bill

This is the future! There are a ton of aircars out there: http://www.parajetautomotive.com/ http://www.terrafugia.com/

Where's my flying car so I (alone) can leave the unwashed masses on the ground.

There. Fixed that for ye...

Here's your flying car:

http://terrafugia.com/

Sorry it's taken so long.

These jokers are working on a street legal airplane (They have completed flight testing a proof of concept):

http://www.terrafugia.com/

http://www.terrafugia.com/ -- this is about as close as you're going to get with our overly regulated system.

BTW: Here's your flying car....

or owning a flying car without a pilot permit.

You know, there's this thing called google these days, which can easily point you to their web site, where you can find all the pictures they've got.

Or you could just bitch about it.

-jcr

They seem to be making some progress on the prototype now. http://www.terrafugia.com/weeklypic.html

While the main link is apparently slashdotted, there is also this site, apparently the official Terrafugia site: http://www.terrafugia.com/vehicle.html

This is a neat concept car. Out of everything I've heard about, the most likely to actually make it to the market is the Terrafugia Transition, which is aimed at people who have both drivers' and pilots' licenses. Not VTOL, but more realistic too.

--
Educational microcontroller kits for the digital generation.

This direct link appears to work better than the website embedding they have setup.

Direct Link to Movie File
http://www.terrafugia.com/mov_terrafugia_landing.mov

The tail fins kinda remind me of a '57 Chevy. I noticed thespecs on the transition mentioned a 100hp engine. Will that engine drive both the prop and the wheels? If so, my mom's neon would leave this thing in the dust.

In all, I see this as a largely impractical vehicle. I would have a good laugh if I saw a car with wings folded vertically going down the highway.

The vehicle itself is intended for pilots (not your average driver) as a way to drive home if the weather gets rough. Don't think of this as your standard mass-produced city-cruising vehicle, as it is intended to be a specialty vehicle.

  The team of engineers is pretty solid (I know and have worked with several of them). They will deliver a viable vehicle. I do not know how the market looks or how well it will be received, but they are certainly getting support from the general aviation community.

The company website is http://www.terrafugia.com/