A new twist on the ol' flying car - May 17, 2006

Carl Dietrich, the MIT aeronautical-engineering graduate student who is designing the vehicle, prefers the term "roadable aircraft" -- meaning a plane that drives, not a car that flies.

"We try to steer away from The Jetsons," Dietrich says. "It's a step in that direction, but a baby step."

Still, in an age of hub-centric commercial flights, Dietrich thinks the ability to cruise between two of the 4,800 small airports nationwide and then drive to a final destination, whether your office or vacation home, will be irresistible to amateur pilots.

He and his team are finishing a one-fifth-scale model for wind-tunnel tests. They hope to build a prototype within two years and to have the first Transitions rolling down runways by 2010.

The projected price tag? About $150,000, roughly the price of a fully loaded Ford GT sports car.

A new twist on the ol' flying car - May 17, 2006