Terrafugia (ter-ra-FOO-gee-ah) was founded in 2006 by award-winning MIT-trained aeronautical engineers and MBA's – who also happen to be passionate private pilots. The company’s mission is to provide innovative solutions to the challenges facing personal aviation. The result: the Transition® Roadable Aircraft.
Taking advantage of new FAA regulations in the Light Sport Aircraft category, Terrafugia developed the Transition® to provide pilots the convenience of a dual-purpose vehicle. Its unique design allows the Transition® to fold its wings and drive on any surface road with a modern personal airplane platform. Once at the airport, the wings extend and the aircraft is ready for take-off. Both folding and extending the wings is done from inside the cockpit.
The Transition® addresses head-on the issues private and sports pilots face: cost, weather sensitivity, high overall door-to-door travel time and a lack of mobility at destination.
In July of 2008 Terrafugia returned to EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, WI with a completed Proof of Concept Transition® vehicle. Powered testing of the Proof of Concept began in the second half of 2008. After safely achieving speeds around 100 miles per hour on the ground, the Transition® Proof of Concept successfully completed its flight test
program in Plattsburgh, New York. Lessons learned from testing, optimization, aesthetic design and design for manufacturing were incorporated into the production aircraft design.
Construction, testing and certification of the next generation design are now underway. First customer delivery of a Transition® Roadable Aircraft is expected to occur in 2012.
To date, Terrafugia remains privately funded by a sophisticated group of accredited individual investors. The company is based just outside of Boston in Woburn, Massachusetts, USA.
Terrafugia is derived from the Latin for "Escape the Earth".
Visit: http://www.terrafugia.com/ for more information
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