Terrafugia’s Flying Hybrid 2013 Terrafugia TF-X to debut in the Fourth Quarter of 2013 - Shara Tibkin's Sweet Dreams of The Jetsons wants Christina Aguilera's Your Body

“This is the right time for us to begin thinking about the future of the company beyond Transition development. We are passionate about continuing to lead the creation of a flying car industry and are dedicating resources to lay the foundations for our vision of personal transportation”

Terrafugia's CTO and CEO Carl Dietrich in a press release on Sunday May 5^th 2013

If you’ve had qualms about being stranded by an All-Electric Vehicle in the middle of nowhere, imagine if it were flying. But Terrafugia’s apparently undaunted by this fact and now plans to introduce this very same sweet dream or a beautiful Nightmare, Beyonce’s Sweet Dream Style sometime this year, most likely in the Fourth Quarter of 2013!

Terrafugia’s Flying Hybrid All-Electric Vehicle concept, the four-seater  2013 Terrafugia TF-X, will allow persons to drive from one location and then fly via a pre-guided pathway by converting to an aircraft as reported in the article “Terrafugia to develop vertical takeoff flying car”, published May 6, 2013 7:53 AM PDT by Shara Tibken, CNET News.

The concept video for this as-yet-to-be-built 2013 Terrafugia TF-X, below best explains how they plan to do this as well as Terrafugia’s Official Press Release:

The company founded by Terrafugia's CTO and CEO Carl Dietrich is based in Woburn, Mass and is really a VC (Venture Capital) funded Start-up composed of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Engineers who apparently watched The Jetsons (TV Series 1962–1988) far too often.

The 2013 Terrafugia TF-X is the follow-up to their previous model, the 2009 Terrafugia Transition which got approval for the roads by NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) in July 2011 as stated in the article “Buckle up! Terrafugia flying car approved for roads”, published July 6, 2011 12:24 PM PDT by Tim Hornyak, CNET News.

An indication of the Pedigree of the 2013 Terrafugia TF-X can be seen from the video of the first flight of the 2009 Terrafugia Transition  on March 5^th, 2009 at Plattsburgh International Airport in Plattsburgh, New York.

In fact, the 2009 Terrafugia Transition is really a test prototype for the 2013 Terrafugia TF-X and was put on Display in April 2012 at the New York International Auto Show as stated in “Terrafugia's flying car heading to NY auto show”, published March 1, 2012 3:02 PM PST by Liane Yvkoff, CNET News.

While at the New York International Auto Show in April 2012, the Terrafugia took the 2009 Terrafugia Transition on a test flight at the Plattsburgh International Airport in Plattsburgh, New York, where they’d done a test flight back in 2009 as stated in the article “Terrafugia: The flying car flies again”, published April 2, 2012 6:48 AM PDT by Martin LaMonica, CNET News.

This vision and real reason for the 2013 Terrafugia TF-X follow-up is best expressed in the company’s , quote : “By directly addressing congestion and other transportation challenges currently being faced internationally, widespread adoption of vehicles like the Transition and TF-X could result in significant economic benefits and personal time savings”.

The Transition was a previous model of Terrafugia’s Flying Car, but was more geared towards Pilots with flying experience. The four-seater 2013 Terrafugia TF-X, which automatically does the flying for the occupants while in the air along a pre-set grid, is geared at mainstream everyday man with no flying experience who’s already able to drive but wants to dodge traffic by flying.

So yes, a lot like The Jetsons (TV Series 1962–1988)!

The basic specs of this flying Car, if it’s anything like the Transition, is as detailed in the article “Can your Chevy Volt fly? Terrafugia announces TF-X plug-in hybrid flying car”, published May 6, 2013 By Stephen Edelstein, DigitalTrends, would be as follows:

1.      Hybrid Electric Vehicle with Foldable wings

2.      VTOL (Vertical Take-off and Landing)

3.      2 Rotax 912 ULS aircraft engine

4.      Runs on Gasoline

5.      100 km/h Flying speed

6.      65 km/h Driving Speed

7.      Price: US$279,000

Based on the design of the previous 2009 Terrafugia Transition, the 2013 Terrafugia TF-X is expected to fly via its two (2) Rotax 912 ULS aircraft engine, which then switch via an Automatic Transmission to driving the Rear wheels of the vehicle. But since this is an All-Electric hybrid vehicle, I’m guessing it’ll be flown by its two (2) Rotax 912 ULS aircraft engine but when on the ground, be powered by the Li-Ion Batteries. These Li-Ion Batteries may also be trickle charged by the two (2) Rotax 912 ULS aircraft engine while the Vehicle’s flying and regenerative braking while on the ground.

Not so comfortable with this product, especially the fact it’s a Hybrid, albeit it appear the flying part is Gasoline or Diesel powered. VTOL (Vertical Take-off and Landing) makes me even more nervous, as that means they’re expensive to maintain, if the US Navy’s Osprey, also VTOL, is anything to go by as per the article “Osprey debuts at Marine Helicopter Squadron (HMX) 1”, published May 6, 2013, Navair News. But then there’s the British Harrier Jet and the F-35, so it’s a workable, albeit expensive concept flight vehicle.

But they are certainly earnest about flying cars being the future of Vehicular Transport. It’s apparent that they’ll soon be driving themselves soon as predicted in my blog article entitled “Volvo Testing Autonomous Motor Vehicles in Spain in Live Traffic - EU Project SARTRE adds self-driving AI with smartphone Control”.

I’m certainly excited about this upgrade, based on the prior success of the 2009 Terrafugia Transition. I just hope it’s not another pipe Dream and in fact may be something everyone’ll desire like Christina Aguilera’s Your Body.