Terrafugia Transition revives dream of a flying car
NEW YORK AUTO SHOW • A group of Massachusetts Institute of Technology-trained engineers is trying to go where no corporation has gone before: building a profitable business selling flying cars.
The Terrafugia Transition seats two and can take off and land from more than 5,000 public U.S. airfields. It can be driven on any road and runs on the same gasoline as high-performance cars. So far, the company said, 95 people have put down at least $10,000 to reserve one of the $279,000 planes. Depositors include pilots and the wealthy.
Whether the flying car gets off the ground or not, it’s a reminder — amid all the talk of mileage standards and profit margins — that cars have always been about dreams, from Marty Mcfly’s Delorean to autos with propellers that turned into boats. Indeed, Carl Dietrich, Terrafugia’s founder and CEO, has dreamed about this since he watched reruns of The Jetsons, the cartoon where George Jetson commuted to his job in a flying car.
The Transition will be on display at the New York auto show, with a special offer to reserve one for a $2,500 non-refundable deposit.