Name: A plane you can drive
Uploaded: 2011-11-02T15:22:05Z
Duration: 9 min 21 s
Description: A flying car -- it's an iconic image of the future. But after 100 years of flight and automotive engineering, no one has really cracked the problem. Pilot Anna Mracek Dietrich and her team flipped the question, asking: Why not build a plane that you can drive?

A flying car -- it's an iconic image of the future. But after 100 years of flight and automotive engineering, no one has really cracked the problem. Pilot Anna Mracek Dietrich and her team flipped the question, asking: Why not build a plane that you can drive?

A plane you can drive

Instead of forcing cars to fly, the breakthrough came by making a plane that could drive. The result, a two-seat aircraft called the Transition, folds its wings and fits in a garage, operating both on roads and in the sky. Years of setbacks and engineering challenges revealed that meeting road regulations is often tougher than meeting those for flight. The project shows how rethinking old problems with fresh perspectives can make the impossible possible.