Terrafugia's flying car. No, really.

Last week, I attended TiECON East as a finalist for the TiE Challenge accelerator program. One of the most interesting keynotes was given by Carl Dietrich, a young aerospace engineer and entrepreneur who leads Terrafugia -- a company building a flying car.

Dietrich joked in his talk that flying cars are featured seemingly every year on the covers of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics. But none of these inventions have been taken to market. Terrafugia is serious about approaching this challenge, which is multifaceted. Besides the engineering problems associated with building a vehicle that can drive on city streets and take off from a runway, there are also significant regulatory and business issues that must be overcome.

Dietrich laid out a very convincing business case for this type of vehicle, which he said would cost $270,000. The savings for pilots comes in the fact that storage fees and inconveniences associated with bad weather can be avoided (you'll never be stuck at a remote airport again because of bad weather!). His team is also working on the regulatory issues (he and several members of the senior management team participate on FAA advisory panels and standards groups). But the plane, the Transition, was the star of the show. He showed a flight video and it was hard not to be excited. Here's what it looks like:



Note the fact that it works on normal unleaded gasoline, not airplane fuel. And it fits in a garage. I can't wait to see these in the skies.