Terrafugia has requested an exemption from the FAA to allow its Transition roadable aircraft — known by most as a flying car — to weigh up to 1,800 pounds and have a stall speed of 54 knots and still be classified as a Light-Sport Aircraft (LSA), according to a report at AVweb. The LSA rules set the maximum weight at 1,320 pounds and a maximum stall speed of 45 knots. “I think we make a very strong argument that these changes are in the public interest,” Terrafugia CEO Carl Dietrich told AVweb. The added weight is necessary to meet national highway standards, Dietrich said, and those features add safety to the airplane, not only by making it more crashworthy, but also making it more likely that pilots will land in marginal weather and choose to drive instead of pushing forward to their destination.
Gents (and Ladies?) all the “technical” babble aside – the REAL test on both the Icon 5, if it EVER “gets out of the water”, financially and literally, and the “Flying Car”, is the DEMAND, PROFITABILTY and acceptance by the recreational GA consumer who BUYS them – “proof of (technical) concept” – has ZIP meaning to wise and smart investors. The continued effort by so many to “socialize” (everyone else BUT the user pays?) recreational GA has about as much of a chance as a “Flying Ocean Liner” on Shark Tank!
NOTE: Are there any adults in the room?
As usual our government is trying ‘to take care of us’. Let the buyer beware and progress will be made.
They should not get an additional weight and speed allowance. The company already received one weight exemption and now they “need” another for safety? The LSA rules were established when this project began, others have to follow the rules but Terrafugia and ICON have enough money and political clout to not have to. If the rules are changed for them again the whole category of LSA should be scraped.
RIGHT ON Greg! “Re-Build” (re-engineer?) because WE (technical guru’s) didn’t think about that earlier – and then THEY’LL buy? – HELLO! NOTE: guess these “investors” needed a tax write-off?
The wieght variance is most likely to be granted.
However, LSA has no medical, so maybe the stall speed is tied to this fact, and the 54k exception will be denied.
If both are approved, there now are no limits to LSA that can not be moved.
If the 3rd class medical drops out for smaller aircraft, then the flying car will be fine with no exceptions.
The criteria for qualification of an aircraft into the L/S catagory was severly flawed from the get-go. Small, proven aircraft (such as the Cessan 150) (Pilot trainer numero UNO in the world) should have given evidence to the Powers-To-Be of where to start with these guidelines. Instead, they plucked some numbers from God-knows-where as a magical max. gross limit…forcing L/S potential candidates to build/search for something that MIGHT get them into the air & safely back to earth ( as John Kennedy said in his Lunar Landing of Man proposition to the nation, way back when). Pilot/passenger safety has allways seemed to take back-seat in the L/S issue w/the FAA…numbers do mean things & should be considered…but there was, at the time, a good argument for setting the max. gross number more representatively to the available proven fleet of small aircraft…& by choosing 1,320 #’s, they failed miserably in being reasonable & set the L/S designation into the questionable credibilty status. It has, however, clawed it’s way into the fore-front of todays Aviation Community…& has become a force to be reckoned with…regardless of the hurdles tossed in it’s way…& the FAA must acknowledge that, sooner-or-later.