Plane-Car concept that may just "fly"

Even though you’ll park it in your garage, drive it to your nearest airstrip, and pilot it to your destination, don’t think of the Transition as a flying car. Carl Dietrich, the MIT aeronautical-engineering graduate student who is designing the vehicle, prefers the term “roadable aircraft”—meaning a plane that drives, not a car that flies.

Still, in an age of hub-centric commercial flights, Dietrich thinks the ability to cruise between two of the 4,800 small airports nationwide and then drive to a final destination, whether your office or vacation home, will be irresistible to amateur pilots.

He and his team are finishing a one-fifth-scale model for wind-tunnel tests. They hope to build a prototype within two years and to have the first Transitions rolling down runways by 2010.


LiveScience.com

I figure this is the place for this, even though it comes from a science oriented site rather than an aerospace one.

I think it's a good concept, and pretty cool looking, but I don't know how well, if at all, it takes off as a product.


Thoughts, Opinions?

Not gonna happen.

Unless everyone that owns one has a PPL, instrument ratings etc etc etc

The FAA, JAA etc would be having fits even at the thought of it.



Until we invent crash-proof aircraft, and I think thats gonna be something akin to anti-gravity, there is virtually no chance IMO of personalised speeders a la starwars.

Don,t think you,d need a IFR rating. PPL yes..

But no way does it look suitable for low visibility or bad weather

Would be a heap of fun though ''if the design ever gets off the ground'' pun intended

I,m guessing they would have to increase the wingspan though to cope with a low flying speed of 120 mph

Does anyone remember that beared fellow (Paul something with an M)'s "Sky car" and how it was supposed to revolutionize civillian point-to-point transport? Has it? No, if anything it's been over budget and rather precarious looking in it's trials. Though this flying car looks like a much more stable, less whacked out concept- it still is not going to fly. Looking past the cost of getting a PPL/IFR (of which I have both), there are a lot stricter regulations. On anti-biotics for a sinus infection? Well, you're not going flying today. Panic disorder got you on anti-anxiety drugs? Nope, see you on the ground. Well I understand that the regulations exist for public safety, try explaining to John Q. Public that he is going to have to take some sort of ill-concieved hovering bus to work instead of driving *HIS* flying car just because he is clearing up an STI he got from a mistake he made at a bar. Another reason I fly at least is to get away from the sociopathically bad drivers, in the sky no one can pass you on the right on a road with only one lane. I am terrified to imagine the kind of calamatous crashses people would get into when they realize they can race their car-planes. At least with driving, there's some likelyhood you'll live.

-EE

That would have been the Moller Skycar (I've seen it called the Supercar as well). That thing was a great idea but was riddled with problems.

This idea is more intended for aircraft enthusiasts rather than every Dick and Harry on the block. These things aren't crash proof (although they'd be easier to crash-proof than cars), so you will need some lessons/endorsements to be certified to fly one. But if anyone can fly a plane already they're quite ready to use one of these. It's just the new people that will have to work more.

Now, flying mass transit (bus-size, local transport) is easily doable. Only the driver needs to know what he's doing. Heck if we wanted to we could take a few Chinooks, load 'em with seats and a pilot and Voila (That's French for "Shazzam!') (That's something my old Math teacher used to say and it's stuck ), we have a high-speed mass transit system. Probably not efficient but it is flying.

For the moment singular civilian flying transportation is a tad out of our reach, but we can see it getting closer with every attempt.

There is no market for the thing , would never sell. Its ugly and everyone likes thier suvs. If there is a vtol the can encorporate and suv into it and be at least as efficient then there would be something.

I'm actually surprised no one has actually tryed to defend this, and say it's the wave of the future or something, usually theres always that one person.
Anyways, yeah, I agree, it's not gonna be popular, except for a few aircraft enthusiasts and oddity collectors.

The conversion of chinooks into skybuses is a cool idea, even if it did'nt work to well, I'd still pay to ride it.

Wasnt there a sattelite image of a mysterious car that flew off? I think it was in Australia not sure but does anyone remember discussing about it?

Originally posted by iori_komei

Even though you’ll park it in your garage, drive it to your nearest airstrip, and pilot it to your destination, don’t think of the Transition as a flying car. Carl Dietrich, the MIT aeronautical-engineering graduate student who is designing the vehicle, prefers the term “roadable aircraft”—meaning a plane that drives, not a car that flies.

Still, in an age of hub-centric commercial flights, Dietrich thinks the ability to cruise between two of the 4,800 small airports nationwide and then drive to a final destination, whether your office or vacation home, will be irresistible to amateur pilots.

He and his team are finishing a one-fifth-scale model for wind-tunnel tests. They hope to build a prototype within two years and to have the first Transitions rolling down runways by 2010.


LiveScience.com

I figure this is the place for this, even though it comes from a science oriented site rather than an aerospace one.

I think it's a good concept, and pretty cool looking, but I don't know how well, if at all, it takes off as a product.


Thoughts, Opinions?

There's nothing new about this "concept" aircraft but because it's by someone from MIT someone might buy it. It's already got more press than it deserves.

Imagine, the road rage incidents, if something like that come to be true, LOL.