On July 24, when Gov. Chris Sununu signed the protocol-building law to record, examine and display “road planes,” also known as flying cars, the national media first passed on to New Hampshire, and there is an industry of hope that can take note of this.
Vehicles are small aircraft capable of switching to a car configuration so that they can also be driven to the ground, and are within a few years of taking the road and sky in the hands of consumers.
Three have teamed up to bring Bill 1517 to the New Hampshire Legislature, with the purpose of initiating the legalization procedure they hope will soon spread across the country.
The bill, a component of House Bill 1182, one of the general measures approved by the Legislature at the end of the last session, is a condiment for an industry that is already testing its products in New Hampshire.
Terrafugia, a subsidiary of a Chinese company founded in Woburn, Massachusetts, is already testing its vehicle at Nashua Airport and PAL-V, a European company, has one at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport in addition to its exterior in the Netherlands.
Sam Bousfield, founder of Oregon-based Samson Sky, an experimental road plane to be built on components through its amateur owners, had not thought of New Hampshire as a critical place for the launch of his product until he contacted Keith Ammon, New Hampshire. Distributor PAL-V, to collaborate in the bill and its presentation.
“We are in the other aspect of the country. Evidence there was not shown on the radar screen before this bill,” Bousfield said, adding that the company is already looking to “install one of our top amenities in a certain place.” , and we started looking in New Hampshire just for that one. bill.”
Take-off from the industry
Attracting the industry “was in fact a target of the law,” said Rep. Steve Smith, Sullivan’s Republican, who approached him to introduce the law through his former colleague, Ammon of PAL-V, who in the past was a state representative in Hillsborough.
“This is an emerging industry and it would be wonderful if they settled here because as soon as they are rated by the FAA and can sell them, [buyers] can register them at Manchester Airport and take them to the hotel,” Forgeron said.
There are promising signs.
When PAL-V, which comes with a three-wheeled autogyro, opened a at Manchester Airport, he temporarily learned that “there is a pretty smart and thriving aviation network here in Manchester,” Ammon said. The flight school, National Flight Simulator, is located next door.
“It’s a smart position for education and in all likelihood a service delivery center,” he says.
Terrafugia, which was founded in 2006 and had conducted “some flight tests” at various locations, adding Lawrence, Massachusetts, to expand its testing program a few years ago and lay the groundwork for what will be a visitor service center at Nashua Airport. Said Kevin Colburn, general manager of Terrafugia.
“Our product is a soft sports plane, so most people aren’t going to fly these kinds of small planes to and from Logan or even the Manchester [airport],” Colburn said. “It makes sense to be in a smaller space, accustomed to smooth sports traffic,” is what you can locate in Nashua.
He added: The new law is “essential to us” and said that “as far as we know, no one has addressed this challenge [making planes on legal roads] in the country or in the world.”
In the end, the bill itself “ended up being very simple” to implement, said Smith, the sponsor. “We didn’t check out to rewrite anything.”
He said he was seeking the opinion of the administrators of the State Aeronautical Division and the Department of Motor Vehicles to find out what was needed to allow the vehicle to exit through the gate and enter the roads. “Getting this from public protection and law enforcement agencies has made the process easier.”
NH DOT and DMV said the Federal Aviation Administration’s needs for aircraft were more stringent, so FAA registration and annual inspections replaced the needs of the DMV. In addition, an airplane mechanic will have to be used to painting in the vehicle.
By law, you will be required to register your FAA certification in order to sign the vehicle with the DMV, and the FAA road aircraft number will also be used as VIN (vehicle identification number) through the DMV.
As things stand, it’s unclear what happens when a New Hampshire-registered road plane lands in the state and the driving force takes it to the roads of that state, Smith said. And the vehicle can only be registered in New Hampshire if the owner owns an asset or business where the vehicle is mainly parked.
Smooth journey
In the mid-2000s, an MIT investigation asked pilots what prevented them from spending more time flying their planes. “Mobility at the destination airport” is one of the factors, Colburn said.
“Once you’re at the airport, how do you get where you need to go? The concept was a flying car that responds to all those problems, so that’s what they should do,” he said.
The 3 progressive road planes can spend 3 to 4 hours in the air with car fuel.
Terrafugia is contemplating its road planes, which look like a classic small plane, but with wings that fold to compatibility in a popular garage, to allow pilot-licensed aviation enthusiasts to seamlessly pass from a small airport to a small airport without having to waste time renting a car or taking a taxi to their hotel or final destination.
Similarly, PAL-V, which has a helicopter-like propeller that folds into driving mode and a smaller tail propeller, would be more effective for other people living or spaces where mountain topography can lead to long trips.
There are more than 5,000 public airports in the United States and road planes can land on a strip of grass if there are about 900 landfall.
“New Hampshire is an herbal position to live and set up an airport with its own assets and maybe get to Boston or the northeastern centers,” Ammon said with PAL-V.
He added that several experts have expressed interest in the elegant movement of road planes, “where they can move from suburban dominance to rural dominance, and if they have to fly or drive using classic means, they see one or two consumers a day.” However, with this vehicle, they may simply double your billing,” Colburn said.
According to Samson Sky’s Bousfield, there are 609,000 pilots in the United States who paint a total of 25 million hours according to the year, “75% of whom are for business.”
Other points may inspire consumers to purchase the plane for around $300,000.
“People are beginning to wonder how much they need commercially in this post-Covid environment. What if there were any other pandemics?” said Jennings-Bates.
Better late than never
The 3 corporations aim to organize a short- or long-term vehicle presentation to celebrate the passage of the bill.
The 3 road planes are still in the prototype stage, but corporations are confident that they will soon begin to attract consumers’ attention with their products, even until the end of 2021.
But the pandemic a slight setback in the source chain.
“We had a team of 70 people, usually engineers, in an environment, so there were commands to paint from the house, which probably took our delivery time to one or two months,” Jennings-Bates said.
And Samson Sky’s Bousfield said one of his suppliers, a manufacturer of surprise absorbers, had closed the store for the pandemic.
“We couldn’t get surprise absorbers for six months. You can’t do them yourself,” said Bousfield, who learned to generate redundancy in his source chain as it expanded production volume.
PAL-V is recently being developed and tested under the auspices of the European Aviation Safety Agency, which, when completed in “a few months,” will be transferred to the FAA, said Jennings-Bates, who opened a one in the United States. because North America is a much bigger market for recreational aircraft. There are more than 215,000 aircraft of all types registered in the United States.
“There are so many of those airports nearby and most of them don’t have a tower, traffic doesn’t require it,” Ammon said. “The sky is strangely open once you get away from major airports.”
You can contact Liisa Rajala at [email protected].