AE Alumnus' Creation Flies Like a Plane; Drives Like a Car

4/1/2013 Written by Susan Mumm

"To design a brand new vehicle is every aerospace engineer's dream," says AE alumnus Sam Schweighart. So he and his colleagues designed one.

Written by Written by Susan Mumm

“To design a brand new vehicle is every aerospace engineer’s dream,” says AE alumnus Sam Schweighart. So he and his colleagues designed one that could both fly like a plane and drive like a car.

Coming off a successful debut at the New York International Auto Show early in April, the Transition Roadable Aircraft is in the testing stage right now, and Schweighart and his partners at Terrafugia, Inc., have received deposits for over 100 aircraft. The first models will fly/roll out sometime next year, at a cost of about $280,000 each.
 

Transition Roadable Aircraft
Transition Roadable Aircraft
Transition Roadable Aircraft

“Not bad for an airplane; a bit pricey for a car,” Schweighart observed.

The versatile crafts provide the best of both worlds. Like any small plane, they can fly at altitudes of 10,000 to 12,000 feet, traveling around 100 miles an hour. On ground, they are 100 percent street legal, able to travel the road at normal highway speeds. A push of a button inside the 2-person cockpit folds the Transition’s wings so it can fit in a standard garage, or spreads them to prepare for take-off.

Wings folded, the unusual vehicle draws a crowd when developers test drive it on the streets of Boston. Onlookers react positively, Schweighart said. “Most people are curious to see what it is.”

Potential customers must have at least a sports pilot’s license (minimum 20 hours of flight instruction ) to operate the Transition aircraft. Take-offs and landings require runways, so regional or small airports suffice.

Schweighart, who earned his BS from AE at Illinois in 1999, joined with fellow grad students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology to found Terrafugia, Inc. “One of my co-founders came to me when we were in grad school, and we joked a bit about building a flying car, but we realized there actually was potential there.” When the idea placed second in an MIT business school entrepreneurial competition, the creators knew their project had wings.

Although he has been enjoying the business end of the small company, Schweighart’s main focus has been in designing and testing, particularly in regard to the vehicle’s wings and electronics. Challenges arise in meeting both Federal Aviation Administration and highway requirements. For example, Terrafugia received an exemption to use lightweight material for the craft’s windshield, rather than the heavier glass used in most cars. Designers maintained the heavier glass could shatter if a bird hit the windshield while the craft were in flight. The Transition is about the same size as a standard SUV, but weighs less than 1,000 pounds.
 

Terrafugia Team
Terrafugia Team
Terrafugia Team

Although other companies are pursuing design of flying road vehicles, “we’re the farthest along on getting it sold,” Schweighart said. Terrafugia, based in Woburn, Massachusetts, is Latin for “escape the earth .”

Schweighart returned to the Urbana campus April 26 to present for AE students a seminar on his company’s product. He was also presented the 2011 Outstanding Recent Alumnus Award during AE’s Awards Banquet that evening.

Schweighart grew up in Paxton, Illinois, about 30 miles from the university, and credits AE Profs. Bruce Conway and Victoria Coverstone and Emeritus Prof. John Prussing with helping to shape his engineering interests.

His family living in Paxton and Champaign were at first skeptical about his startup company, but now are supportive. “They thought, ‘Ten years in college and you decide to start a plane company?’ But I think they’re on board now.”


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This story was published April 1, 2013.