Turns out, cars of the future won't only be able to drive themselves, they'll also be able to take off into the sky. Just days after Google announced that it gave a blind man a ride in its self-driving Toyota Prius, aerospace company Terrafugia on Monday said that it has completed a test flight of its Transition flying car.
The prototype "street-legal airplane," which was cleared for production last July by the U.S. National Highway Safety Administration, took its first test flight on March 23 at the Plattsburgh International Airport in Plattsburgh, N.Y, Terrafugia said. The Transition is a two-seater vehicle with folding wings that can be driven on highways and flown in the air with unleaded gasoline. During the test flight, which lasted about eight minutes, the Transition reached an altitude of 1400 feet above the ground.
"It's a remarkable vehicle both on the road and, now, in the air," Terrafugia chief test pilot Phil Meteer, who manned the vehicle during the test, said in a statement.
Terrafugia COO Anna Mracek Dietrich said the successful first flight is a critical step towards "initial production and first delivery" of the vehicle. Woburn, Mass.-based Terrafugia said it will continue its testing program and is planning to begin delivering the flying car "within the next year." The company is currently soliciting $10,000 down payments on the $279,000 price tag of the Transition.
Last summer, Terrafugia said the personal aircraft could be released by the end of 2012. The company says it's aiming for sales in "fly-in" communities like the 600 or so such locales in the U.S. where people either own small planes or ferry in and out of town on them.
"With this flight, the team demonstrated an ability to accomplish what had been called an impossible dream," Terrafugia CEO/CTO and co-founder Carl Dietric, said in a statement. "We look forward to continuing to show that the challenges of bringing a practical street legal airplane to market can be overcome."
Those in the New York area who are interested in seeing the flying car with their own eyes can check it out at the New York Auto Show, where it will be on display this Friday through April 15.
For more, see the 12 Flying Cars That Paved the Way for the Terrafugia Transition slideshow below.
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