(no subject)

[fredrikegerman]

There is apparently a company in Winchester that is working on a flying car. There was an entrepreneurship summit in the conference center at work last week, and the inventor was out front showing off his work and describing his business plan to hard-headed tech business types.

The rest of us just gawked. Here's a shot of the car; the inventor is by the driver's side door.

The wings fold up for highway driving, and the propeller locks in place. But the car is pretty darn low to the ground.

He demonstrated unfolding the wings for us.

After unfolding, the wings lock into place; after a pre-flight check you'll be ready for takeoff. He did the parlor trick of grabbing a wing and using it to wiggle the entire car on its suspension. He took pains to point out that while this was a prototype it had both flown and driven (though they brought it in a trailer this time; they're passing crash tests, but I think it's not fully road certified yet).

But of course if anything goes wrong it's always good to have a backup plan.

[Hmm, nothing like abusing table environments LaTeX-style.]

Comments

[dcltdw]

See, this is why you need to do EMS. *googles* Lesse, Terrafugia’s VP of Engineering, Co-Founder, received his MS and Ph.D. from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT and hold his BS from the University of Illinois. Sam brings a high degree of practicality and hands-on experience to the program, having left the Charles Stark Draper Laboratories to pursue Terrafugia. He is a private pilot and active hang glider pilot. ...and last I checked, Sam was also a 'medic with Armstrong ambulance here in Arlington.

Sam was also the founder and first Chief of MIT-EMS, which is how I knew him and about this project. Lots of us are impatiently waiting for him to get this thing ready for us peons to get. :)

[fredrickegerman.livejournal.com]

Right, I knew he had an MIT connection, but I have a mind like a sieve and this was five whole days ago! Didn't know he'd served with Armstrong, though. That's kind of cool in an extra-small-world way.

You're going to have to wait a while to fly one without a pilot's license, though. And you'll still need an airfield to land at.

[lokiect.livejournal.com]

well, we do have to get hopping on that tech, I mean, 2015 is almost here and we're gonna need it by the time doc brown shows up!

[fredrickegerman.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure my personal backyard helicopter was supposed to have arrived five years ago.

[jmandresen.livejournal.com]

Pretty interesting. Is the car engine used to assist in take-off, or is the propeller sufficient?