TF-X a reality by 2018: An Era of Flying Car Begins

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Massachusetts-based Terrafugia aims to provide true door-to-door transportation with a flying car within the next decade. The firm’s concept vehicle TF-X is a solution to the ever-growing traffic, which is a pain for people who commute between work and home by car daily.

Prototype of TF-X is expected to be flying by 2018 while the car might hit the stores within the next eight years. The price will be on par with high-end luxury cars might be somewhere around $279,000.

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TF-X quick facts:

The four-seater hybrid with wings that require no runway: TF-X will park in garage, runs some distance and then thrusts into air. And for the entire process, the machine requires no runway.

Speed: The vehicle will glide with a speed of 322 km/h, along 805 km flight range.

Twin electric motor pods: For flying purposes, it’ll have fold-out wings with a pair of electric motors attached to each end.

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Electric motor teamed up with 300 hp engine: With a 300 hp engine, the attached twin motors will shift the car from a vertical to a horizontal position.

Computer controlled flight: Semi-autonomous TF-X will be operated through computer controls. After all, operating would be much safer than driving a flying car.

Just tell it where to go: The TF-X will adjust itself to tower-controlled airspace thus avoiding air traffic and bad weather.

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Full-vehicle parachute system: In case of emergency while in air or if there occurs fault while auto landing, the operator can activate full-vehicle parachute system embedded in the TF-X.

Non-approved landing zones: In emergency, the vehicle can be brought to land in non-approved landing zones while parallelly the system autonomously notifies the authorities about the situation.

Automatic emergency system: If the machine receives no response from operator’s side, it’ll implement an automatic emergency mode and auto-land at the nearest airport.

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Operational training: Learning to operate the flying machine won’t be a difficult task. The time would be relatively less than learning to fly a traditional aircraft.

Please find the animation below, where Terrafugia shows how the TF-X would work.

A megawatt of power for lifting: Just before taking off, the machine switches its electric-powered propellers to 90 degrees.

Propellers fold for cruise: While for forward flight, the propellers take horizontal position parallel to the car’s body.

Ducted fan provides thrust: With the activation of ducted fan, the spinning of propellers ceases and folds back into the nacelles.

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The two seater compact aircraft that can fold its wings when not in flight and park in garage, sounds interesting, reminds me of the slucious car (the nachos loaded high-tech car created by Boov in the movie Home.)

[Daily Mail]

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