Street Legal Flying Cars? Terrafugia Clears Key Regulatory Hurdles

Terrafugia, the Massachusetts-based flying car company, has proved yet again that it’s a master of navigating the complex requirements for selling a street-legal aircraft. The question now is when its creation, the Transition, will actually make it to market.

This month, the company was granted four exemptions by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for the Transition, a two-seater aircraft that's also a four-wheel car. Terrafugia will be allowed to use plastic rather than glass in its windows, for example, and motorcycle tires rather than specialized versions of car tires. These are the latest steps—and perhaps the final major hurdles—in Terrafugia’s attempt to make its flying car road-certified. Last year, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA’s) granted the company a critical exemption that allowed Transition an extra 110 pounds over the maximum weight typically allowed for light sport aircraft.

Terrafugia asked for these exemptions because of the unique problems associated with making an aircraft that not only drives like a car but also meets the regulatory requirements for American automobiles. For example, using the shatter-proof glass mandated in U.S. cars would add to the Transition's weight, which was already over the FAA’s ordinary maximum. But now that the company has secured an exemption, it can use polycarbonate windows to bring the weight down.

The tires are primarily a cost issue: To meet government rules, the Transition would require custom car tires that would add $120,000 to the cost of each vehicle, according to the company. But Terrafugia has already tested motorcycle tires and rims on the vehicle successfully, and NHTSA’s ruling should allow the Transition to use those tires.

Not all of the company’s requested exemptions were granted for the full three years requested. NHTSA granted Terrafugia only a one-year exemption from using advanced air bags. It similarly granted only a one-year exemption for employing an electronic stability control system, which helps drivers maintain control of the vehicle and prevent roll-overs.

Nevertheless, these exemptions appear to be the last major hurdles for the company—at least when it comes to garnering the approval of air and auto authorities. “With what we have, with the additional weight and the four [exemptions], we should be good from this point forward,” Anna Mracek Dietrich, Terrafugia’s chief operating officer, tells Popular Mechanics.

Though Terrafugia's regulatory battles might be over, its problems in delivering a real flying car to market are not. Last month, Terrafugia CEO Carl Dietrich announced a new delay to the production prototypes of the Transition, which the company had hoped to fly at an air show this month. The company now plans to fly the production prototypes next March, and is also pushing back first deliveries of the aircraft to late 2012, according to Deitrich’s announcement.