Terrafugia’s flying car will still be driven by people

Terrafugia, the first manufacturer of modern aircraft, has also entered the on-demand transport market with a cabin solution delivered by a car on the road and an aircraft structure in the air.

Terrafugia is left at the doorstep, envisioning air taxis with drivers and pilots. For the time being, it uses robot control in one place, which we can now buy in a plain series car, for parking, more precisely for relocating the traveling cabin.

Terrafugia plans to service the TF-2 air taxi door-to-door, lifting the passenger cabin into the air on the go. A car comes to the address where the four-seater cab is quasi-located on the platform of the truck, snuggled into a designer minibus. Not only can the passenger carry a handbag, but there is also enough space in the back for the suitcase. The minibus goes to the nearest vertiport, in Hungarian to the vertical landing and take-off point.

The vertiport consists of car parks and a unit similar to today’s designated helicopter takeoff. The taxi ride here goes into the air when a cabin lift plane lands. Once the aircraft is brought into the cabin, it is taken from under it by a truck, while the other in robot mode is pushed in and picked up by the passengers in the cabin. The operation does not take more than two minutes.

With its powerful tilting rotors, it is more reminiscent of the proven Osprey solution used by the U.S. Navy.

In the later version, a pilot is piloting the aircraft in the nose of the cabin aircraft. With the electric drive reinforced by the hybrid power plant, it is lifted by four rotors and then pushed from behind by a propeller. Due to the rigid wing, this is a real conversion plan, so the rotors fit on the frame holding the traveling cabin while traveling. Its flight capability is effective, with a cruising speed of more than 200 km / h, its range is around 300-400 km, and even half an hour of navigation remains from the hybrid fuel. Then he arrives at the other vertiport and there the minibus takes the cabin with the passenger to the address.

At Terrafugia, they very sympathetically state when describing their TF-2 model that they will be able to integrate into the general trends with the development, except for the use of pilot and driver. The system is also suitable for blowing loads if goods need to be delivered quickly, here the container can contain up to 500 kg of goods.

The company was founded more than 10 years ago at the renowned American University of Technology, a group of friends graduated from MIT, founded by 5 engineers, the Transition was taken to the LSA, or light aircraft class, license, although it does not weigh less than 600 kg. Have you cleverly argued with the FAA, the U.S. aviation authority, that the parachute is being missed because of its weight?

The TF-2 is already being negotiated, and the CEO sitting back to back should have no capital problems because the company was recently sold to a group famous for manufacturing Chinese luxury cars, including Volvo in Europe.