US company Terrafugia says it is making “significant progress” towards production of the Transition, but adds that it does not yet have a date set for certification and initial production of the flying car.

“We are confident that production is on the horizon, but the final schedule will be substantially informed by the necessary actions that result from the ongoing testing programme,” says Terrafugia COO Anna Mracek Dietrich.

“While we appreciate that there is substan-tial interest in knowing when production will begin, the current endurance testing must be completed to determine if an additional design refinement cycle may be warranted prior to initial production.”

In 2012, the Transition order backlog already surpassed the 100 customer mark and now represents flying cars worth around $30-million.

Public interest is also growing, with Terrafugia YouTube videos viewed more than five-million times.
Terrafugia is currently conducting flight and drive testing to evaluate the durability of the Transition’s airframe in real-world environments.
Any issues that are discovered in this phase of testing are either noted as items for evalu- ation and potential redesign on the next vehicle, or modified on the current prototype.
Once the engineering team is satisfied that most of the field issues have been identified from this prototype, the company says, it will evaluate if the number and magni-tude of potential modifications warrant the construction of another prototype prior to final compliance testing for certification.
Although the company says it is “very pleased” with the vehicle’s flying and driving characteristics, there is always room for improvement. Recent flight testing has, for example, resulted in some aerodynamic improvements to the Transition.

The most substantial modification has been the extension of the leading edge strake at the root of the wing. The primary purpose of this modification is to reduce the magnitude of the wing-fuselage interference drag.

A secondary benefit of this modification has been the stiffening of the doors. Terrafugia says it has also received positive feedback on the resulting aesthetic improvement.

The current testing programme also serves as a means for the Transition to meet the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administra- tion’s Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.

Drive testing recently moved from the company’s corporate parking lot to the New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Recent testing here has determined that the Transition is capable of stopping on dry road from a speed of 60 miles an hour in a distance of 110 feet.

This braking performance is the result of the Transition’s all-wheel disc brakes and low weight.

Terrafugia’s test drivers have been impressed with the Transition’s ground performance. “It handles really well – especially considering it’s an airplane. It’s fun to drive,” says Terrafugia engineering VP Andrew Heafitz.

Terrafugia was founded by five pilots who graduated from the well-known Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the US.

Terrafugia is Latin for ‘escape from land’.

In 2009, the company completed the first successful test flight of its two-seater car that becomes a plane and then a car again.

When driving, the wings fold up, and when the driver wants to take to the sky, the wings can unfold in under 30 seconds.

In driving mode, the vehicle is 2 m high, 2.3 m wide, and 6 m long. When flying, only the width changes as the wings unfold, expanding to 8 m.