Finally, a Flying Car!

Well, someone finally did it. The flying car we all dreamed about and that 1950s scientists said would be in everyone's garage by 1985 is finally here. A few years late, maybe, but Terrafugia managed to pull it off.

The Boston-based company recently took the maiden flight in their Transition, a hybrid car-plane. The test flight lasted only 37 seconds, but the vehicle not only drove to the runway, but it took off and landed successfully without a hitch.

Anna Mracek Dietrich, co-founder of Terrafugia and COO says that "The first flight is great, but first landing is what matters."

Aptly put. The pilot, Phil Mateer, a retired USAF test pilot, took the wheel on March 5 in Plattsburgh, New York. His statement was to the point: "The flight was remarkably unremarkable."

The Transition has been in design for years and has been road tested for the past six months. March was its first test flight. The car-plane runs on regular unleaded and has a range of 500 miles. The wings fold up into "car mode" in less than thirty seconds and unfold in the same amount of time.

The information from this test flight plus road testing will combine for tweaks to make up the second prototype, which will likely be the pre-production model. The Transition is slated to hit the market in 2010 with a price tag of $194,000 and the company has already taken deposits for 40 vehicles.

Pretty cool first step towards true terra-to-air hybrid technology!