The Terrafugia TF-2
Terrafugia TF-2 will change air travel for ever
A coach-like vehicle will carry passengers along roads to specific locations, and take passengers to the pick-up helipad.
The pod will then detach from the terrestrial medium and attach to the plane-like vehicle.
Once the changeover has occurred, it can take-off almost instantly.
Having a detachable pod would not only allow passengers to travel door-to-door without setting foot outside, it would also make for faster take-off and landing at the launchpad.
It combines a road-legal car with a flying vehicle by driving passengers from their front doors to a helipad where it then carries them to their destination.
The new design uses two vehicles to achieve both terrestrial and airborne transportation.
A central pod is the key to the design that can be attached to a road-vehicle and a flying device.
Terrafugia, the Massachusetts-based developer of the Transition roadable light sport aircraft, is close to finalizing the design of its ambitious follow-on project, the TF-2 passenger and cargo vertical-takeoff-and-landing urban air mobility (UAM) vehicle.
Unlike most other UAM designs unveiled so far, the TF-2 extends the roadable aircraft concept by integrating the flying vehicle with an attachable, drivable four-passenger or cargo pod that can carry up to 1,200 lb. on ranges up to 185 mi. at 125 kt. Terrafugia, which was acquired in 2017 by China’s Geely Group, believes the air and ground vehicle combination could offer significantly increased utility over dedicated air vehicle designs.
The TF-2 is targeted at type certification in 2023, says Terrafugia, which is evaluating the design with a flying scale model. A full-scale vehicle should begin flight test by the end of next year. Certification will be under the FAA’s simplified Part 23 rules. The craft will use a piston or gas turbine engine to generate electric power to drive multiple rotors.
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- The TF-2 Tiltrotor is a vectored thrust Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft which will transport exchangeable passenger and cargo pods that become the underside of its fuselage.
- The Tiltrotor is fixed wing with two wide diameter propellers that tilt vertically for ascent and descent and it uses tractor propellers in flight mode.
- The electric motors are roughly in the center of each wing and the outboard wing tilts with the rotors.
- Adjustable height landing gear are aft of the motors and on the down facing rudder.
- The TF-2 Tiltrotor has a speed of 315 km/h and a range of roughly 500 km with its maximum payload of 500 kg. It will be autonomous but will have a pilot in the permanent cockpit.
- The vehicle would carry and swap out streamlined pods that make up a lower fuselage.
- These pods could carry up to four passengers or cargo.
- While landed custom trucks (originally hybrid but ultimately fully electric like the TF) with an automated loading and unloading system and carrying pods behind their cabs would exchange pods with the aircraft within two minutes.
- With the quick transition and no passengers loading or unloading the cost to operate the vehicle is estimated at $400 hr.
- Terrafugia achieved widespread publicity after its first aircraft in 2009; the fixed-wing Terrafugia Transition was billed as “the world’s first practical flying car”.
- In late 2017 Terrafugia was acquired by the Chinese company Zhejiang Geely, which also owns the Volvo and Lotus car brands.
- This injected new capital into the Transition production, allowing acceleration in the company’s eVTOL development.
- The company is studying two competing concepts under the designation of TF-2. These two different designs are a Vectored Thrust Tiltrotor model and a Lift + Cruise model. Both are considered to be compatible with the Uber Elevate concept.
- This concept was abandoned in summer 2018 in favor of the TF-2 Lift+Push approach now being pursued.
- For more information on Terrafugia’s other aircraft, please see the Terrafugia TF-X, Terrafugia TF-2, and Terrafugia TF-2A aircraft pages.
- The TF-2 Tiltrotor is a vectored thrust Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft which will transport exchangeable passenger and cargo pods that become the underside of its fuselage.
- The Tiltrotor is fixed wing with two wide diameter propellers that tilt vertically for ascent and descent and it uses tractor propellers in flight mode.
- The electric motors are roughly in the center of each wing and the outboard wing tilts with the rotors. Adjustable height landing gear are aft of the motors and on the down facing rudder.
- The TF-2 Tiltrotor has a speed of 315 km/h and a range of roughly 500 km with its maximum payload of 500 kg. It will be autonomous but will have a pilot in the permanent cockpit.
- The vehicle would carry and swap out streamlined pods that make up a lower fuselage.
- These pods could carry up to four passengers or cargo. While landed custom trucks (originally hybrid but ultimately fully electric like the TF) with an automated loading and unloading system and carrying pods behind their cabs would exchange pods with the aircraft within two minutes.
- With the quick transition and no passengers loading or unloading the cost to operate the vehicle is estimated at $400 hr.
- Terrafugia achieved widespread publicity after its first aircraft in 2009; the fixed-wing Terrafugia Transition was billed as “the world’s first practical flying car”.
- In late 2017 Terrafugia was acquired by the Chinese company Zhejiang Geely, which also owns the Volvo and Lotus car brands.
- This injected new capital into the Transition production, allowing acceleration in the company’s eVTOL development.
- The company is studying two competing concepts under the designation of TF-2.
- These two different designs are a Vectored Thrust Tiltrotor model and a Lift + Cruise model.
- Both are considered to be compatible with the Uber Elevate concept.
- This concept was abandoned in summer 2018 in favor of the TF-2 Lift+Push approach now being pursued.
- For more information on Terrafugia’s other aircraft, please see the Terrafugia TF-X, Terrafugia TF-2, and Terrafugia TF-2A aircraft pages.
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