This Flying Car Can Now Be Legally Flown – But You Can’t Drive It Or Even Buy It Yet

Massachusetts-based Terrafugia announced earlier this week that its “Transition” flying car has received an FAA Special Light-Sport Aircraft (LSA) airworthiness certificate. The certification clears the two-seat hybrid airplane-car to be flown in the U.S. But the dream of driving your car to the airport, unfolding its wings and flying away remains hazy, as do sales plans for Terrafugia’s airworthy personal transport.

The Special LSA certificate was granted on January 15. It indicates that the Transition is “manufactured to the applicable FAA accepted consensus standards” – not to full production standards. Terrafugia says that it completed 80 days of flight testing with the Transition, delivered 150 technical documents to the FAA, and successfully passed the FAA audit.

Terrafugia vice president and general manager, Kevin Colburn, stresses that the FAA was hands-on with the aircraft as well. “They [FAA] came to our facility, went through our quality system, talked to our personnel and made two inspections of the vehicle.”

Now under Chinese ownership by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, which also owns carmakers including Volvo, Lotus, Geely and Proton, Terrafugia was founded in 2006 by five MIT graduates. They came up with the initial design and took deposits for over 100 Transitions according to Colburn.

Years after its founding, but before Geely acquired the startup in 2017, Terrafugia offered full refunds to deposit holders. Some took the refunds but a number elected to stay in line for eventual sales of the flying car. Despite its limited airworthiness approval, it appears they’ll have to wait a while longer.

Colburn says that Terrafugia has “not actively contacted” any of its deposit holders yet to see if they’re interested in this version of the Transition. Moreover it has not yet announced, or even crafted, plans to ramp up production and formally offer the aircraft for sale. The company’s logic rests on the inconvenient fact that while private pilots can now legally fly the Transition, they can’t drive it on the road.

In its press release Terrafugia says it has a goal of “being legal both in the sky and on local roads in 2022.” A quick look at the 360-degree views of the aircraft on the company’s website suggests it has a steep climb ahead to attain National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)-approved roadworthiness.

Among other requirements, NHSTA will demand extensive crash testing including side, quartering and rear impact tests. Colburn says the Transition has completed one head-on crash test. NHTSA is also likely to have issues with the vehicle’s twin rear booms, vertical/horizontal stabilizers and exposed propeller. Its folding wings will probably receive attention both for crash safety and the obvious blind spot they create when folded. Likewise, the aerodynamics (lift) of the vehicle at highway speed will need attention.

“There’s a bit of work left there, no doubt,” Colburn acknowledges. He says that road certification in 2022 remains the goal and suggests the Transition might be road legal in some local jurisdictions if not nationally – a tough proposition to prove.

Elaborating further, Colburn adds, “Many times in the past this company has just put a [production] date out there. I think we’re trying to get a little softer on that. It’s a complex durable good subject to the regulations of two federal agencies which may take an unpredictable amount of time to get to the mile-post that we want to get to.”

Nevertheless, Colburn says a number of potential customers were, and presumably are, interested in a car-like Transition airplane that they can trailer to and from an airport to fly or simply push back into the hangar when done flying. The price tag for the Transition, “well north” of $250,000 Colburn says, could dissuade them, particularly when comparing other far cheaper LSA-certificated airplanes.

“We think this is a pause-point. Let’s go ahead and offer this as a product and see what the interest is,” Colburn explains. “We’re just starting to get a sense of whether there is a [pure aircraft] market or not. If there’s not, it’s not a problem. We’re just going to keep going. If there is a market, we’ll look at what ramping up to production looks like.”

That’s a notably casual attitude for an aircraft-maker. Colburn says that Terrafugia’s corporate parent is on board with this strategy and that Geely has a very “hands-off” management style. He adds that neither are particularly concerned about competition from the nascent urban air mobility (UAM) market. It’s worth noting that Terrafugia has advanced its own UAM design.

Insofar as the dream of the flying cars (pursued since the late 1940s) goes, it’s familiar territory. They always seem to be just beyond the horizon. With no set sales plan and Colburn’s own calculus that road certification is “a couple of years away if not 10 years away”, Terrafugia’s Transition is in an ironic netherworld – cleared to fly but not to buy, nor drive.

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