Well now we know the answer to how road safe this vehicle will be- it won't. I new this was going to be an insurmountable obstacle to its design and certification. I would venture a guess it is about as crashworthy as the side car on a motorcycle. I wouldn't let my family have one to begin with and certainly not to commute daily. I have to admit it is a novel airplane. Maybe if it sells well the safety factor can be brought up to snuff. There will be a high fatality rate just as with motorcycles, the company will have to make them safer.

Terrafugia exempt from safety standards

Well unfortunatley just like any other 'Clean Sheet" design, people WILL die to showcase the weak points. Someday it may be a workable concept, but I believe most Pilots will not want to be the test pilots for this thing. Now, non pilots with 200K and 20 hours of Sport pilot training are the ones sadly that will be beta testing this thing.

This company is pretty serious as it turns out. Their "Transition" roadable car is on schedule for delivery in 2015 or so. This next video (TF-X) is a sort of personal Osprey and is not as far- fetched as it looks, because tilt rotor technology is currently available (see the other thread on Autonomous Rotors). The aircraft does all the landing and takeoff maneuvering itself. You have to overlook the Dubai disco music.

Probably 200mph glide speed too in case of battery failure! I have a problem trusting something with a wing that small and 2 non-centerline engines.

I call BS. Has anyone seen a Terrafugia anything fly?

All hat; no cattle.

As little as I care for the idea of a light sport airplane mixed with a poor quality road car, I believe the Terrafugia Transition will arrive around 2015-2018. By 2020 we will occasionally pass them and wonder who the heck uses these things. The other airplane is more of an idea vehicle than a serious proposition.

Re: Terrafugia Flying Car
 

When I was a kid in the 50s, I used to watch the Bob Cummings sitcom "Love that
Bob" because he had an Aerocar and I thought it was such a technological marvel.

But as it turned out, it wasn't a very good car or a very good airplane and they ran
into problems trying to get it into production. They tried again in the early 70s with
a sleeker body type. If I remember correctly, there was some certificate issues and
the idea again failed to capture much interest.

Molt Taylor's Aerocar - YouTube

James May's Big Ideas - The Aerocar - YouTube

Now, I think it's a novelty toy that will again fail the wide-appeal test.

.

The Military has often tried to save money by asking designers for "one platform that will do everything". The hazard of this approach is paying a fortune for an air, land, or sea vehicle that will indeed do several things, but do none of them well. There are exceptions, but not many. :(

Exactly!

This thing has smaller wings/higher loading than a T-38, and it takes me 7 months and 110 hours to teach a kid to fly it.....when he's flying it 3-4 times a week!

And I have to ask: where's the lateral stability? There's no tail-volume. (Unless there's a Segway in the backseat.....)

F-111, F-35.....

Hey, both of those things came from the same factory in Texas!!