A breakthrough in personal transportation?

I’ve had my doubts about the viability of Terrafugia’s project to build a street-legal airplane, but this week it became more clear what the end game is.

The company announced a project — called the TF-X — which uses what it’s learned so far from the original project to create an actual product that could change transportation in a Jetson’s-style way.

The company says a person could figure out how fly/drive the vehicle in as little as 5 hours, well below the current regulations from the FAA now.

It appears the plan is to allow the vehicle to land anywhere, unlike the current project which can only land at an airport. That presents a challenge to local municipalities that will have to be worked out.

Based on its stick-to-itiveness displayed in its current project, Terrafugia isn’t a company interested in pie-in-the-sky announcements to get some quick marketing hype. This could actually happen.

Here’s the spec sheet.