I have been waiting for years for my flying car. And for years, I’ve been keeping an eye on the development of the Terrafugia Transition, a flying car being developed practically in my back yard, and test-flown from Hanscom Field, where I learned to fly. Just a few days ago, I read that the Transition had just been granted its airworthiness certificate by the FAA! (The highway certificate was still in the works.) But soon! Soon! It was already approved for sale as an airplane.
And now I read that production in the U.S. has been halted, most of the employees laid off, and further development of the plane is being shifted to China. China! (I had not realized that the company was now owned by a Chinese holding company, Geely, which also owns Volvo and Lotus.) Talk about a gut punch! (Bad news for the employees, too.)
No flying car for now. To assuage my sorrow, I have shifted my dreams to another aspiration. This 80-foot, solar-powered yacht:
I like boats. Almost as much as I like airplanes. And who wouldn’t like this boat, from Silent Yachts of Austria? Solar powered! Why, the savings in fuel alone would probably cover the cost. (In, oh, about a thousand years.) But if we had one of these, we wouldn’t need the van conversion for travel that Allysen keeps talking about. Even she would see the logic in that. Wouldn’t she? Allysen? Sweetie?
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