Flying car concept touches down in city
By DAVID BROOKS, Telegraph Staff
dbrooks@nashuatelegraph.com
Published: Friday, May. 5,
2006
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A scale model of a
flying car being developed by Massachusetts company
Terrafugia will be on display at Daniel Webster
College in Nashua on Saturday. Photo courtesy of
Terrafugia and Benjamin L. Schweighart
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NASHUA – If
a pilots group based in Lawrence, Mass., wants some students
from MIT to show off their scale model of a flying car, why
would they bring the show to Nashua? For better parking, of
course – meaning “parking” from the point of view of airplane
fans.
“We were looking for an airport that has a big enough room, so
people can fly in for the event!” said Penny Bowman, head of
the Boston chapter of the Experimental Airplane Association,
which is hosting the unusual talk.
Not many things would bring that many folks flocking to Daniel
Webster College on a Saturday morning, but the people behind
the Terrafugia company think they’ve got it.
Terrafugia – from the Latin for “escape from land” – is
composed of a half-dozen people, most in their 20s, who met at
MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. If all goes
well, they hope to have a prototype by the end of 2008, which
is speedy by airplane-development standards. In Nashua they
plan to show off the five-foot model they’ve used in
wind-tunnel tests.
“Carl (Dietrich), the CEO, has been thinking about this type
of vehicle since he was a kid. It’s of those dreams that
hasn’t gone away for him – or anyone else in the country, it
seems,” said Anna Mracek, the vice president for business
development of the nascent firm. “Whenever we talk about it,
people get excited.”
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IF YOU GO |
The company
Terrafugia will display a scale model of its
proposed flying car Saturday at Daniel Webster
College. The free presentation will be held at 10
a.m. in the Collings Auditorium.
On the net:
www.terrafugia.com |
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And they’ve been getting excited
for a century, since the dream of a flying car is as old as
flying and cars, with the first such patent issued in 1918.
A number of models have been built over the years, notably
Moulton Taylor’s Aerocar, but even those that solved the
technical problems have never been able to overcome regulatory
and business drawbacks, and remained novelties.
Terrafugia’s idea is a four-wheel car with wings that fold up
at a touch of a button and remain attached to the vehicle. It
would land and take off on traditional runways. “This isn’t
something you’d use to pick up the kids at soccer” said Mracek.
It would allow point-to-point travel over distances of up to
500 miles. You could drive to the airstrip from home, fly to
another airstrip, then drive to your final destination, all in
one vehicle.
“We call it a ‘roadable aircraft,’ not a flying car. It sounds
like just semantics, but it reflects a philosophy difference,”
said Mracek.
Part of the difference is that the target audience for the
estimated $150,000 machine, which is still in the
wind-tunnel-testing phase, is pilots who want more
convenience, rather than commuters who want to do zipping
through the air.
Other differences include new airplane engines developed in
recent years that use automobile gas rather than special “av
gas” sold at airports; lightweight composite materials for the
body; and high-tech avionics, the electronics needed to keep
track of flight, which are cheaper and lighter than ever.
Perhaps the
most important difference, however, is the “light-sport”
category of aircraft and pilot’s licenses approved by the
Federal Aviation Administration in late 2004. This license
makes it easier for people to become pilots – for example,
only 20 hours of flying practice is needed instead of 40 – and
also eases some requirements for airplane construction, which
both expands Terrafugia’s potential market and lowers its
development costs.
“That was definitely one of our enabling pieces,” said Mracek.
“It reduced the certification burden.”
The Daniel Webster talk is part of a market research drive by
Terrafugia that will culminate in a trip this summer to
Oshkosh, Wis., for the nation’s premier private-plane
gathering, the Experimental Aircraft Association’s AirVenture
Oshkosh.
“We’re trying to make sure we’re on the right track in terms
of what the pilot community is look for, to make sure we’re
working on something that is important to pilots out there,”
Mracek said.
Daniel Webster College, with its hefty aeronautics program and
close links to adjacent Nashua Airport, was a perfect venue
for that.
For her part, the aircraft association’s Bowman is wishing
them the best.
“I think it would be great,” she said of the idea. “There’s so
many people who struggle with being able to fly from one
location to another. This could make a difference.”
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