Flying Car Gets Regulatory Clearance

This is really cool. Remember how we used to talk about flying cars and how they were the future? Well it looks like the future is here! According to the Wall Street Journal, a company called Terrafugia, Inc. has been granted exemptions by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Terrafugia makes a vehicle called the Transition that can drive and fly. Pretty cool isn't it? According to the WSJ:

The exemptions, which are particular to vehicles that fly and drive on roads, will allow the company to begin delivering the Transition when it is ready late next year. They allow the Transition to use plastic windows instead of standard automotive safety glass, and tires that aren’t normally allowed on multi-purpose vehicles.

The company says laminated safety glass used on cars for decades would add too much weight and could fracture in a way that would obscure the pilot’s view through the windshield. Lightweight polycarbonate windshields used in aircraft are designed in part to withstand impacts with birds, which are generally more of a hazard to pilots than drivers.

So if you had the money, would you buy a flying car?