Flying car lands at the New York auto show
The world waits a hundred years for a flying car – and then two come along at once. Channel 4 News reports from New York.
On display at the New York Auto Show this week – the Terrafugia Transition – the world’s first commercially available flying car.
The combination has been a dream of designers for decades – but never before has a model been licensed for use on the road, and in the air
Are there any drawbacks? Well – it doesn’t perform as well as a standard plane in the air, or a car on the ground.
You could buy both plane and car for much less than the £200,000 this would set you back.Even so, its makers say they have already taken orders for a hundred.
Cliff Allen from Terrafugia told Channel 4 News: “This will be the first commercially available street-legal aeroplane in the United States, actually in the world. We’ll be shipping our first models here within the next year.”
Drivers taking off to soar over traffic jams is still some way away however – as it will still need a runway.
Meanwhile, the new Dutch prototype PAL-V flying car needs a lot less room to take off. It won’t be available for at least another two years and will cost about the same as the transition.
The future may be on its way but it won’t land for a while yet
