The long-held hope for a flying car is about to really take off.
A Massachusetts man’s dream of finally accomplishing the aerocar — the holy grail for many aviation enthusiasts — is close to coming to fruition. Carl Dietrich told Bloomberg he expects the “Transition” to hit the market in the next three years.
“It can be frustrating, but I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t think we had the potential to inspire a trillion-dollar industry,” he said. “I wouldn’t waste my time if I didn’t think we could change the world.”
The $279,000 vehicle-and-plane-in-one will travel 70 mph on the road and 100 mph in the air.
Dietrich has started a lot of buzz for the project since he founded his company ,Terrafugia, in 2006.
It launched the first public demonstration of the two-seat prototype at the Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual AirVenture gathering in Oshkosh, Wis., in July. More than a hundred people lined up to pay deposits of $10,000 for their own multiuse vehicle, Bloomberg reports.
“We had seven people write us checks for a product that didn’t even exist yet,” Dietrich told Bloomberg. “That’s a pretty powerful indicator that people really want this.”
As the 37-year-old continues to develop the project, he is now focused on getting certification from the Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates planes, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which handles approval for road vehicles.
One reason the Transition is further along than any previous flying-car concept is that in 2004, the FAA created the so-called light sport aircraft, or LSA, designation for planes that weigh less than 1,320 pounds (600 kilograms) and seat no more than two people.
LSA manufacturers are given an easier path to market in order to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation.
“Personal aviation is basically a fun, expensive hobby,” Dietrich says. “My goal is to actually make it useful.”
The concept is more than just a novelty.
Dietrich said the Transition would seek to improve many of failings of current small airplanes.
Though many small planes cannot fly in bad weather, Dietrich said in those situations the Transition could simply land and then drive to the destination. The vehicle can also run on regular unleaded gas.
“You’re getting comparable gas mileage to your road car, but you’re going 100 miles per hour over all the traffic,” Dietrich said.
There are other companies that are also close to building a flying car.
A Slovakian company has developed four prototypes since 1990 for a flying car named AeroMobil.
That project is a little bigger than the Transition and can travel up to 100 mph on the road and 124 mph in the air. The company has yet to announce a release date.
jlandau@nydailynews.com Follow on Twitter @joelzlandau
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