For years, the dream has been to bring the airplane into the garage. But the promise of a car that flies has been an elusive one. Once Massachusetts-based company is trying to change that reality. The Transition Roadable Aircraft is specifically designed to appeal to the practical pilot who must contend with the realities of an urban, automobile-centric environment.
The airplane can cruise up to 450 miles at 115+ mph, take off and land at local airports, drive at highway speeds on any road and fit in a normal suburban garage space. The two-seat vehicle has front wheel drive on the road and a propeller for flight, transforming from plane to car in thirty seconds. Both modes are powered by unleaded automobile gasoline. By giving pilots a convenient ground transportation option, the Transition is intended to reduce the cost, inconvenience and weather sensitivity of personal aviation.
The Transition Aircraft can cruise at up to 65 mph and achieve 30 mpg while traveling on public roads. Credit: Terrafugia
Dassault Systèmes, a maker of 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, today announced that its CATIA brand has been chosen by Terrafugia, creators of the revolutionary Transition® Roadable Aircraft, for 3D composite and finite-element modeling. Terrafugia will use CATIA Analysis and CATIA Composites Design (CPD) solutions to design and develop its beta prototype, with delivery expected in 2011.
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On the airstrip, the Transition quickly transforms into a skyworthy aircraft. The deployment of the wings can be performed from inside the cockpit. Credit: Terrafugia
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After Terrafugia completed a successful Proof of Concept for the first version of its Transition Roadable Aircraft in early June, the design team began planning the vehicle’s second iteration. Having spent several years developing the initial Transition prototype, Terrafugia identified multiple ways in which they wanted to adjust the original design, including experimenting with alternate materials and sizing for the wings. In order to analyze the way different materials would bend or move under various conditions, the company required a solution with advanced 3D composite ply-modeling, dedicated part-modeling and material behavior simulation capabilities.
RAND North America, a value-added reseller of Dassault Systèmes PLM solutions, recommended that Terrafugia adopt CATIA for its composite modeling needs. RAND chose CATIA’s composite solutions for their exacting technical features, which would help Terrafugia correct problems like wrinkles and bridges in the very first stages of design by visualizing ply characteristics and fiber behavior. They also emphasized CATIA’s value as an independent finite-element analysis (FEA) tool, thereby eliminating the need for a separate FEA investment.
Impressed by its success with Dassault Systemes’ SolidWorks 3D design suite, which it began using in March 2009, Terrafugia adopted CATIA Analysis and CATIA CPD as composite-focused complements to its existing SolidWorks infrastructure.
According to Ben Zelnick, engineer at Terrafugia: “CATIA is a great complement to our SolidWorks solution. Being able to have a full digital model of a ply-by-ply layout will allow us to conduct accurate structural analyses, which is invaluable in reducing the weight of the Transition. In fact, we recently correlated an analysis of a CATIA model of a portion of the structure closely to a sample tested in our facility.”
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The plane can travel up to 115 mph and can accommodate 430 pounds. Credit: Terrafugia
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Terrafugia, based in Woburn, Mass., was founded in 2006 by award-winning MIT-trained aeronautical engineers and MBAs—who also happen to be passionate private pilots. The company’s mission is to provide innovative solutions to the challenges facing personal aviation. Taking advantage of new FAA regulations in the Light Sport Aircraft category, Terrafugia developed the Transition to provide pilots the convenience of a dual-purpose vehicle. Its unique design allows the Transition to fold its wings and drive on any surface road with a modern personal airplane platform. Once at the airport, the wings extend and the aircraft is ready for take-off. Both folding and extending the wings is done from inside the cockpit.
The Transition addresses head-on the issues private and sports pilots face: cost, weather sensitivity, high overall door-to-door travel time and a lack of mobility at destination. In July of 2008 Terrafugia returned to EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, WI with a completed proof of concept Transition vehicle. Powered testing of the proof of concept has been ongoing during the second half of 2008. Construction, testing and certification of the production prototype will follow completion of the proof of concept’s testing program. First customer delivery of a Transition Roadable Aircraft is expected to occur in 2011. To date, Terrafugia remains privately funded by a sophisticated group of accredited individual investors.
For the upcoming second prototype, Terrafugia’s design team is using CATIA Analysis to create preliminary design simulations rapidly, easily and within a familiar CAD environment. The solution allows the team to optimize its designs based on product performance specifications and to quickly make updates after real-world testing. Moreover, the company is using CATIA CPD to build and test reinforcement spars on the prototype’s structural panels. CATIA CPD gives Terrafugia the ability to verify whether it can feasibly produce what is designed and the ability to perform simulation directly in the same environment.
For more information, images and videos of the “street-legal airplane,” please visit: http://www.terrafugia.com/news_media.html.
