The TF-X Will Be the First Flying Car That Actually Works Like a Flying Car

Image: TF-X concept from Terrafugia

The dawn of the flying car is nigh, at least for rich people. A company called Terrafugia has been working to bring the first airborne sedan, the Transition, to the masses since 2006. Terrafugia announced this week that it will finally deliver its first unit in 2015. Unfortunately, the clumsy Transition is really nothing like the flying cars humans have fantasized about zipping around in ever since The Jetsons.

But Terrafugia also announced that it's working on an alternate model, the TF-X, that is: a vehicle that will take off vertically with rotor propellers, fly with the wings of a private jet, and drive like a street-legal sedan. In other words, a flying car built to sci-fi spec—just as we always imagined it.

See, the Transition, the one coming to market in two years, is more private jet than flying car. It looks sort of like a toy airplane that was dropped in a trash compactor:

The Transition must be driven to an airfield and outfitted for flight—in other words, the flying car presents few discernible advantages over just having a small plane, other than the novelty factor, which would mostly just result in people giving you puzzled looks as you cruised by in a pod version of the Bluth stair car. Also, it costs $300,000.

Read the rest over at the new Motherboard.VICE.com.