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Courtesy Terrafugia
The renderings for the full-size TF-X flying car.
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Every day we get one step closer to living in an episode of the Jetsons.
The Federal Aviation Administration has approved test flights for an honest-to-goodness flying car. Patented in 2011, the TF-X is headed to the skies—in miniature form, at least—as an unmanned two-foot version of the aircraft, which is about a tenth of the size of the planned car. The life-sized, four-seat prototype is eventually expected to fit, wings and all, into an average garage.
Oh, yeah—it has wings. Designed like a “mechanical penguin,” according to Slate, the flying car doesn’t require a runway. Instead, it uses helicopter-like rotors to lift itself into the air before using side-panel wings to glide around the sky. The full-size flying car has a cruising speed of about 200 mph, and can fly about 500 miles at a time. Created and tested by U.S.–based Terrafugia, TF-X is being engineered so that learning to drive the flying car won't be as training-intensive as learning to fly an actual airplane.
While the mini, 50-pound car is in flight tests, other companies are in the midst of finalizing their own versions of the flying car. The drone-like French Xplorair, a one-seat car, was unveiled in 2013 and a full-sized model is expected for 2017. We’ll just have to wait and see who takes flight first.
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