Bay State flying car faces rivals
July 02--Although it created a sensation this spring at the New York International Auto Show, Woburn-based Terrafugia's highway-ready light sport aircraft isn't the only machine built for both the road and sky.
The Maverick is a flying car developed by the Indigenous Peoples' Technology and Education Center (I-Tec) in Dunnellon, Fla., originally for use by missionaries and humanitarian organizations in hard-to-reach areas.
At a base price of $94,000 -- roughly one-third the cost of Terrafugia's Transition -- six have been sold to date, in places as diverse as Hawaii, Canada, Australia and Dubai, said Troy Townsend, I-Tec's chief operating officer and design manager and chief test pilot of Beyond Roads, the vehicle's manufacturer.
The Maverick was certified by the Federal Aviation Administration as a light sport aircraft in September 2010. It has a 190-horsepower, 2.5-liter Subaru engine and can travel at speeds of up to 100 mph on the ground or 40 mph in the air.
Like the Transition, it seats two people and runs on gasoline. ("You can't go to a gas station without a crowd forming around you," Townsend said.) It has a range of 450 miles on the ground or three hours in the air, and has robust suspension for off-roading.
Unlike the Transition, it doesn't have to take off and land at an airport. But whereas the Transition takes less than a minute and the push of a button to fold and unfold its wings, the Maverick's driver has to get out and unfold and hook up the parachute it carries on its roof, a process that can take five to 10 minutes to go from drive- to fly-mode.
"We are a car first," Townsend said. "Terrafugia has a roadable airplane, and we have a flying car, the only one in production."
Still in prototype testing are both the Transition and the personal air and land vehicle made by a Dutch company called PAL-V.
That vehicle flies like a gyrocopter, drives like a sports car and costs $300,000 -- just above the Transition's price tag of $279,000 -- with its first delivery expected in 2015, said CEO Robert Dingemanse.
Like the Transition, it has yet to receive FAA certification. And although it can take off and land at an airstrip in the Netherlands and anywhere in the United Kingdom, in the United States both would have to land and take off at an airport.
"It requires less space to take off and land because you do it vertically," Dingemanse said. "In emergency situations, the rotor serves as your parachute."
Like both the Transition and the Maverick, the PAL-V seats two people and runs on gasoline. It has a 230-horsepower engine, a range of 750 miles on the ground or 315 miles in the air, and reaches speeds of up to 112 mph, whether flown or driven. Converting from airplane to automobile takes about 10 minutes.
Designed by a group of Massachusetts Institute of Technology-trained aeronautics engineers, the Transition also is still in testing and needs to obtain FAA certification, with its first delivery expected within the next year.
"All three companies offer different takes on combining driving and flying," said Anna Mracek Dietrich, Terrafugia's chief operating officer. "The Transition is like the passenger-car version, the Maverick is the dune-buggy, and the PAL-V is the motorcycle."
Like the PAL-V, the Transition would have to take off and land at an airport, but it has the advantage of an automated, electromechanical folding wing that converts more quickly from airplane to automobile, It also has a range of 490 miles, a 100-horsepower engine that can reach speeds of up to 115 mph and a parachute that can land the entire aircraft in an emergency.
"Which machine is best comes down to people's tastes," Townsend said. "Personally, I'd like to have one of each."
Copyright 2012 - Boston Herald