Is it a flying car? Or a drivable airplane?

See http://www.livescience.com/technolog...lying_car.html
for images.

An Idea That Just Might Fly
By Gregory Mone

posted: 24 July 2006
10:31 am ET

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.

“We try to steer away from The Jetsons,” Dietrich says. “It’s a step in
that direction, but a baby step.”

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.

The projected price tag? About $150,000, roughly the price of a fully
loaded Ford GT sports car.

Leaving home: A fender bender could ruin the aerodynamics of the plane, so
the big challenge is to make the Transition both flight- and road-ready. In
car mode, the tail folds up, revealing a bumper. The control surfaces of
the twin vertical stabilizers fold inward, shielding the propeller from
debris.

Driving: With only two seats and no trunk space, the Transition won’t be
ideal for trips to Costco. But the 6.5-foot-high car will be able to reach
highway speeds, Dietrich says, and could be refueled at any gas station
that sells super-unleaded gas. Expected mileage on the road: a not-too-
shabby 40 miles per gallon.

Transformation: On the runway, a flip of a switch starts the metamorphosis.
The tail folds down, the wings flatten and lock into place, and the control
surfaces of the vertical stabilizers line up. A security system, such as a
thumbprint scanner, will keep Junior from “taking off” with the car.

Flight: With an air-cruising speed of 120 miles an hour, the Transition
will be able to fly 500 miles on a single tank of gas. Inside the cockpit,
“it’s all conventional general- aviation controls,” Dietrich says, “so it
should be familiar to pilots.” In bad weather, you could simply divert to
the nearest airport and drive the rest of the way.


Brian
--
http://www.skywise711.com - Lasers, Seismology, Astronomy, Skepticism
Seismic FAQ: http://www.skywise711.com/SeismicFAQ/SeismicFAQ.html
Quake "predictions": http://www.skywise711.com/quakes/EQDB/index.html
Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes?