Airline passenger news and views

The latest oddity in the motoring world seems to fulfil our desire for utter independence; giving us the possibility of driving or flying as we please with the same vehicle.

An old idea that has never reached the mainstream with roots in the Curtis Autoplane from 1917 - just a decade and a half after the Wright Brothers took off in their airplane over the plains of Kitty Hawk.

Terrafugia Transition is the name of the flying car developed by former NASA engineers and built by a small American company that is making so much noise in the media these days for being granted with permission to go ahead by US authorities.

Like something out of a James Bond film - or "like a little Transformer", as Carl Dietrich, founder and chief executive of Terrafugia, told Sky News - the £155,000 two-seater aircraft has a top speed of 115mph when flying, a range of 500 miles on a tank of fuel and requires just 20 hours of training to fly, according to the manufacturers.

When in its car mode, the 28-feet and six-inch wings fold and the vehicle can travel at speeds of up to 90 mph. Whether in air or on the ground, the Transition is powered by the same 100-bhp engine.

Its specifications describe the vehicle's engine a 4 cylinder, 4 stroke liquid/air cooled  with opposed cylinders, dry sump forced lubrication with separate oil tank. The technical sheets also describe its  two CD carburettors, mechanical fuel pump, electronic dual ignition, electric starter, integrated reduction gear and a maximum consumption of 9 gallons per hour.

The question now would be when the Transition is going to be used in the UK. Apart from its dubious practicality - I can only imagine quirky millionaires, Richard Branson types, with that - European Aviation Safety Agency's clearance is required if the vehicle is to be used in Britain, and the drivers will need a pilot's licence too.

In a parallel move, the EU is also seeking to explore the possibilities of another similar concept called myCopter - a Personal Aerial Vehicle - of the same kind as the Transition. For that project, backed by Liverpool University, the EU plans to invest £4.2 million in developing it.