Terrafugia – A flying car? Reality or fiction?

Terrafugia TF-X, a two-seat hybrid-electric vehicle, it can switch to two different modes of driving on the ground or flying in less than a minute. Its cruising speed is 322 km/h, and it has a flight range of 805 km.

The Terrafugia TF-X don’t need a runway to take off and you can do it vertically. Once it lands it can turn into a car capable of moving on open roads. It was certified as a light sport aircraft by the Federal Aviation Administration in 2016, meeting the standards of the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration.

The original concept was a hybrid electric tilt propeller flying car. A prototype created by the North American company Terrafugia where models have followed each other more innovative. The latest creation was the Terrafugia Transition, which was the brainchild of several MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) alumni. The production version was made by Danish designer Jens Martin Skibsted and his partners at KiBiSi.

This vehicle, with its wings folded, could travel on the road like any normal vehicle at around 110 km/h. By stretching its wings, and powered by an electric motor, it could carry two people at a speed of 787 km/h, with a cruising speed of 172 km/h.

The equipment, which includes a Dynon Skyview glass-panel avionics system, also has a fuselage parachute. As of April 2014, 12 test flights had been carried out with two people.

Although in January 2021 this model received the Special Light-Sport Aircraft (LSA) certificate of airworthiness, with approval for road use in 2022, in February they laid off most of their employees and moved to China.