The Transition Is A Personal Air Vehicle Designed To Make General Aviation More Practical For Personal Transportation
Yes, this is going to be another flying car post in which we lament our current, terrestrial ways and our predominantly Earth-bound means of getting places. NASA has what it thinks is the solution, a personal flying machine called Puffin that is just large enough for a person to wedge themselves into before lurching off vertically, powered by a pair of electric motors.
Developers unveiled a scale model of the redesigned Transition "roadable aircraft" (pictured in a digital rendering) in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Monday.
The new design is both a rear-wheel drive road vehicle and a light sport aircraft that can cruise at 105 miles (170 kilometers) an hour.
Developed by the Terrafugia company, the tweaked design—which adds carlike headlights and a license plate holder, among other things—follows a proof-of-concept Transition, which was successfully tested in 2009.
Formula One stars Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button have led the tributes to tragic British IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon, who was killed in a high-speed crash yesterday.
The 33-year-old suffered “unsurvivable injuries” after his vehicle was sent flying into the air and burst into flames in the 15-car smash during the Las Vegas Indy 300.
The dad-of-two was airlifted to hospital where he later died of his injuries, with his wife Susie and young sons Sebastian and Oliver by his side.
British F1 ace Lewis Hamilton, who finished second for McLaren in yesterday’s Korean Grand Prix, described Dan as “an extremely talented driver”.
The 26-year-old said: “"This is an extremely sad day.
"Dan was a racer I'd followed throughout my career, as I often followed in his footsteps as we climbed the motorsport ladder in the UK.
"He was an extremely talented driver. As a British guy, who not only went over to the States but who twice won the Indy 500, he was an inspirational guy, and someone that every racing driver looked up to with respect and admiration.
"This is a tragic loss at such a young age. My heart goes out to his family and friends during this extremely difficult time."
The Transition is a Personal Air Vehicle (PAV) designed to make general aviation more practical for personal transportation. From start-up company Terrafugi, the Transition drives like a car on public roads and can transition into an aircraft at the nearest airport by lowering its 27-foot wings and taking off. As an aircraft it has a top speed of 130mph, a range of 500 miles and can carry a payload of 430 pounds. One stop gives you over a thousand miles of range inside eight hours.
The Transition delivers 30 mpg in either car or plane mode and promises a true integrated roadable aircraft at an economically compelling price.
Dietrich is keen to get his Transition out there because he fears that if a freely available, low cost form of air transportation doesn’t come along, hundreds of airports across America will close. He’s principally betting that the timing is right – Personal Air Vehicles are inevitable, and to date there has been no spark that has ignited public demand, and one that doubles as a car would supercharge the American aviation industry.
Couple Dietrich’s drive and skill with a viable, high bang-per-buck PAV design and we think this could be big, really big!
Of course it’s not just Carl. Terrafugia was founded by a team of high achieving graduates of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was incorporated earlier this year. Currently based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Terrafugia will “combine solid aircraft design fundamentals with a focus on creativity and customer service.
The Transition weighs 1,320 pounds, hold two adults and luggage, and it’s all driven by a 100 horsepower engine. It can cruise at an altitude of 3,500 up to 8,000 feet and can fly up to 12,000 feet.
Top five flying cars-
For more than five decades, science fiction has been tormenting us with hallucination of in-the-air roadways and hastily choreographing sports car-like flying cars. A number of businesses have been hunting the reverie for such a long time.
NASA's PAV (Personal Air Vehicle) Challenge could do a great job to chase the wild dream. To kindle rapid modernism and advancement in PAV performance, NASA has funded $2,000,000 in cash prizes for the PAV flight competition. Here is a list of some of the flying cars, including some vehicles that have taken a voyage in the air while some are waiting to do the same in the near future.
1. Mad Ludwig's flying car-
Unfortunately, this ingenious man King Ludwig II of Bavaria was declared insane 10 June, 1886 and was deposed. And now, after around 120 years after his death, scientists are saying that he was a one of the pioneers of flight. Now, aeronautical specialists have found hiss drawings of the flying peacock car out and re-established them on computer.
2. Aerocar International's Aerocar-
Dubbed the Taylor Aerocar, the American roadable aircraft was built in 1949 by Moulton Taylor. The Aerocar III, which was the final model built by Taylor was colored red had had silver wings.
3. PAL-V: Personal Air and Land Vehicle-
PAL-V Europe BV aims to build everybody's dream in mobility, a full-fledged flying and full-fledged driving vehicle.
Excerpt from the company's page: Steer it like a car and it banks like a motorcycle. It sounds deceivingly simple. And it truly is.
At the heart of the PAL-V lies the Dynamic Vehicle Control (DVC™) system which automatically adjusts the tilt angle of the cockpit to the speed and acceleration of the vehicle enabling a plane-like 'tilting before cornering'.
4. Moller M200X flying car-
The M200X was invented by Moller back in the year 1989, which has now been taken to the air 200 times and can go as high as 50 feet.
5. Skycar M400:
Moller's latest design The dream flying machine is one of its kind personal vertical take off and landing (VTOL) vehicle that can cruise at a maximum speed of 375 MPH at 13,200 ft. The asking price of a Skycar is estimated to be about $1 million, but we can hope it to get as low as $60,000 when it will be mass produced.
Ultimate fragment of human fantasy is to chase down the wildest dream. Chasing the dream of flying in the air, above the others, feeling just wonderful with sense of exhalation and freedom, the belief is to create a flying machine and fly around the city of reverie.
Because our flying ambitions need just more, we have some prominent names creating their own little souvenirs to give wings to our flying dreams, in flying cars and jetpacks. You’ll be using a few just ever so soon – provided you have cash or might to crack a bank.
source- www.gizmag.com
