Coming next year: Flying cars?

Dietrich and his cofounders came up with a design for a standard light aircraft with wings that fold up, tucking themselves close to the body of the plane for driving or extending to full wingspan for flying in just 20 seconds. This is not George Jetson’s magically hovering bug: The Transition needs to take off and land at an airport. But once it is on solid land, it drives on regular paved road.
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So why buy a Transition rather than a luxury car and a used Cessna, the two of which would together prove cheaper than the $190,000 or so Terrafugia plans to charge? Who needs a flying car anyway? Dietrich says the plane solves many of pilots’ common problems. According to a 2002 survey, there are four main reasons that pilots do not fly more often: weather, high ownership costs, limited mobility on the ground, and long door-to-door travel times. “The Transition directly addresses every one of those problems,” he says.