On the 6th of May 2013, Terrafugia Inc announced its plans for the future of personal transportation.
The company has already began its exploration in manufacturing a 4-seat, VTOL (Vertical take-off and landing) plug-in hybrid-electric flying vehicle, the 2013 Terrafugia TF-X. This new TF-X will have increased safety, convenience, and simplicity.
Convenience
Learning how to operate the TF-X will take the operator or pilot, or drive, no more than 5 hours. This is because it is easy to operate and is controlled in such a way similar to steering a car.
The TF-X will also be in a position to fly either manually or automatically between approved landing sites or airports. TF-X can carry 4 people in automobile-like comfort.
Safety
The TF-X is basically expected to be safer than driving any modern automobile. It’s also able to automatically avoid air traffic, bad weather conditions, and avoid tower-controlled air-space. The TF-X will also have a full-vehicle parachute system (backup) that can be activated by the drive in case of an emergency; this is if its operator believes it is incapable of landing automatically.
In case of emergency, and the operator is not responding, the TF-X will automatically create emergency auto-land options at an airport nearby.
Technical Operation
The Terrafugia TF-X is capable of recharging batteries from either the engine or by plugging in an electric vehicle charging station. Prior to departure, the operator selects primary landing target and other backup landing zones.
In the event manual operation or changing weather conditions causes the backup landing-zone to just fall outside of the selected range of limits, the driver will receive notification and be prompted to choose an alternate landing zone.
Normal operations can be conducted through non-tower airspace and on the ground. The licensed operators can add any pre-approved landing zone to their landing zone options. TF-X will also have a non-stop -flight range of not less than 500 miles and its standard size will fit in a single car garage.
