Flying Car a Step Closer to Reality

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lino
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After receiving a key federal exemption, the pricey vehicle is poised to go into production.

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Video:
Click on source link at the bottom to see the video


Flying Car a Step Closer to Reality
by Mike Krumboltz

16 hours ago

Weird-looking cars are a dime a dozen. Far less common are weird-looking cars that can also fly AND have approval from the Federal Aviation Administration. Indeed, as far as we know, there's only one of those babies: The Terrafugia Transition.

The private aircraft/funky-looking car has been in the news before. But the recent announcement that it's going into production sparked mega-searches on the Web. Almost immediately, online lookups for "terrafugia transition" and "terrafugia transition pictures" both, well, took off.

A popular article from the UK's Daily Telegraph explains that the FAA's special exemption allows the vehicle to function as both a "light aircraft" and a car. Normally, for a plane to meet the "light aircraft" designation, it can weigh no more than 1,200 pounds. The Terrafugia Transition weighs 1,320, due primarily to the number of car-related safety features, like airbags and crumple zones. The "light aircraft" designation is key, because licenses for planes with that label require only 20 hours of flying time. Fewer hoops to jump through means more potential sales.

So, how does the plane/car work? Check out the flying car's official video below. So far, 70 people have placed a deposit. The total retail cost: $194,000. Expensive, but really, can you put a price on skipping commercial flights?



Source: http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/93804?fp=1


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numbnuts240
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i'd waste so much fuel, flying everywhere.

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Otto.
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This is something we definitely don't need.

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infinitgkid
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lino wrote: but really, can you put a price on skipping commercial flights?
Actually.... yes... you can.

http://www.gulfstream.com/preowned/airc ... /index.htm

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s0m3th1ngAZ
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20 hours of flight time is still thousands of dollars...
Bout $150 per hour.
Then again...when ur spending that much coin a few extra grand won't matter that much.

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tm1218
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that is more of an airplane than a flying car. the front wheels look fixed(no steering). a flying car is a vehicle that has the ability to be used like a normal road car and an aircraft all in one. plus, they already have flying cars better than that POS.

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ProudNissanFreak
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Otto MCR wrote:This is something we definitely don't need.
+1

People can't drive for s*** on a road, I can only imagine all hell breaking loose in the air.

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Watermelonwarrior
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ProudNissanFreak wrote:
Otto MCR wrote:This is something we definitely don't need.
+1

People can't drive for s*** on a road, I can only imagine all hell breaking loose in the air.
Thank you. Same thing I was thinking. This price tag should keep a majority of stupid people out of them.

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AZ89two4Tsx
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This is stupid.

If we ever have a dual purpose vehicle that can drive/fly, it definitely won't be something that needs a runway to take off. It will definitely be a vertical takeoff vehicle. That thing there is limited to only airport runways, which makes it pretty much unusable.


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