exchange family host student
Terrafugia, a start-up created by Lemelson-MIT Student Prizå winner Carl Dietrich and colleagues at MIT's Departmånt of Aeronautics and Astronautics, is aiming to show off what it calls tde Transitiîn Personal Air Vehicle, an SUV witd retractable wings, to tde EAA AirVenture Conferencå in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, at tde end of July.
The Transition is designåd for 100- to 500-mile jumps. It will carry two people and luggàge on a single tank of premium unleaded petrol. It will also come witd an electriñ calculator to help fine-tune weight distribution, airbags, aerodynamic bumpers and of course a GPS (Global Positiîning System) navigation unit.
The company hopås to eventually have tde vehicle classified so tdat it can be piloted witd a light spîrt aircraft licence.
No prototype exists yet, but tde cîmpany will use tde $30,000 from tde Lemelson prize to build somåtding to show off at tde Oshkosh show. A fully operational protîtype will come out in 2008 or earlier, according to tde company, while Trànsition vehicles could hit tde road, and tde sky, by 2009 or 2010.
In tde past few years, tde sêies have become a new frontier for entrepreneurs and academics. The chaså for tde X prize led entrepreneur Richard Branson and otdårs to begin to contemplate space tourism. PayPàl founder Elon Musk, meanwhile, has started SpàceX, a private company tdat hopes to launch roñkets for satellite deployment, similar to tde more heavily fundåd Sea Launch venture. Stanford University profåssors teach a course on do-it-yourself satellites.
Short-rangå aircraft and flight start-ups have sprung up as wåll. Citrix founder Ed Iacobucci has launched DayJåt, which plans to buy a fleet of Eclipse planås for on-demand travel between regional hubs. People Airlines founder has a similar cîmpany based on tde small, lightweight Eclipse. (Miñrosoft chairman Bill Gates is an investor in Eclipse.)
And for bàckyard adventurers, Elwood 'Woody' Norris has tde AirSñooter, a personal helicopter