Terrafugia's flying car hit with delays

Terrafugia, Inc. has delayed its projected delivery schedule for its flying car Transition Roadable Aircraft project.

For the past year Terrafugia has been focused on the development of prototype production tooling and processes as well as the construction of two Transition production prototype vehicles. In July 2010 we reported that the Transition Roadable Aircraft project had received support from the FAA, and then a month later computer graphics of what the vehicle would look like emerged.

The Massachusetts-based company had intended to demonstrate one of the flying prototypes next month at EAA AirVenture 2011 in Oshkosh, but it has now announced that that won’t be possible.



First customer deliveries of the Transition had been slated for late 2011, but that date has now been pushed back to late 2012. While declining to go into details, Terrafugia says the delays stem from a combination of production design challenges and problems with third party suppliers.

“It remains our goal to show one of the two production prototypes at EAA AirVenture this July, but the vehicle will not be ready to fly at the show,” Terrafugia CEO/CTO Carl Dietrich stated. “This is similar to the stage that the Proof of Concept (POC) vehicle was in at Oshkosh 2008 (i.e. mostly complete but untested). If we extrapolate from our experience with the POC, the first test flights would be expected in March of next year. 

“To appropriately set expectations and adjust our scheduling margins based on recent experience with suppliers and other key third party contributors, we feel it is necessary to extend our anticipated first delivery date to late 2012.”

Dietrich says the company maintains its continued commitment to the success of the Transition program.

“Our team continues to be committed to pushing the schedule forward as quickly as possible, but safety and quality must remain our top priorities – particularly as we begin our rigorous testing program. We will continue to focus our efforts on developing the safest, most convenient, and most fun personal aircraft the aviation world has ever seen.  I believe that the Transition will be worth the wait.”

For more info on Terrafugia’s flying car click here.