Personal Airplane

With the SuperSTOL, an old-fashioned looking airplane with a fabric-coated tubular metal framework, airfields could be completely eliminated. He can take off and landing in relatively narrow spaces - "runways" only 150 ft long instead of the 2,000 ft or more needed by similarly large airplanes. There have been lightweight airplanes for more than a century.

These are aimed at those with a " take-off " licence, which the Aviation Administration launched in 2004 as part of its efforts with groups of pilots and aircraft producers to make personal flying more easily available. It is much simpler to purchase a lightweight sports licence than a conventional personal flight certificate: Your aircraft's maximum capacity and maximum allowable load must not be exceeded and it cannot accommodate more than two persons.

Admittedly, owning an airplane is not as secure as piloting commercially available airplanes. This year the death toll for business flights differs in magnitude-0. 02 fatalities per 100,000 take-offs - but significantly lower. Despite the risks, I took my first flight lesson in 1988, long before the lighting sports trends began.

Although today I have the more sophisticated personal licence, a fistful of businesses are trying to entice week-end flyers like me into the cockpit of their aircraft, not only with the pace and excitement of flight, but also with the possibility of landing nearer to their destination - or even, in the case of transition, driving their aircraft directly there.

Indeed, a fully refuelled transition is conceived to travel several hundred kilometres ashore or up to 400 kilometres far. Mr Dietrich said the US$299,000 should give beginners the opportunity to drive in bad conditions when flight becomes uncertain. The 100 hp motor, which drives the castors in passenger compartment and the rearward directed prop in aircraft compartment, is a favourite Rotax aircraft from Austria.

All of the above aircrafts use similar Rotax power units. But Terrafugia has carried out a number of pilot missions and the crossing flies and drives. SuperSTOL, the more traditional SuperSTOL, which cost about $135,000 and is now available, resolves another problem: to have enough room to dock. Giant-sized undercarriages with a monster truck-style damper and greasy tyres allow the airplane to dive in without having to plan for a long downtime, just like traditional airplanes do.

Instead of the werewheel-like yokes found on many contemporary airplanes, the agile 5 has a joystick on either side of the dashboard and a T-shaped gas grip on a central panel - a setup that many air borne pureists (myself included) appreciate because it tends to feel more like a warplane. Featuring detachable side panels, air travel in the A3 80 felt like a Piper Cub, a highly acclaimed small airplane from the 1930''s that can be piloted with open panels and open doorways.

This would cause a small aircraft to crash severely or even become a fatal spinning accident. Finally it began to sink, but slow enough that most pilot had enough free air to lower the aircraft nostrils, increase airspeed and revert to regular flying.

When I flew over the traffic-calmed George Washington Bridge, setting up the A3 for disembarkation and dropping it softly on Hudson, I couldn't imagine doing the same in Martha's Vineyard, Block Island or one of the thousand seas and streams across the U.S. With 18 helicopters, the drone-like VC200 will take off and disembark vertical like a chopper, but it's simpler to go to e-volo, the Germans behind the battery-powered airplane.

Airbus, headquartered in France, leads a range of electrical jets known as the E-Fan programme, which does not burn petrol, produce CO2 or nitrogen oxide emission and are significantly less noisy than gas-poweredjets. Earlier this year, the E-Fan 1. 0, which ran on lithium-ion battery power, was the first twin-engine electrical airplane to fly across the English Channel.

AeroMobil, a slovak enterprise, is currently designing a floating vehicle that is similar in function to the Terrafugia transit - but is optically a slim bubble vial to the Terrafugia beum. The manufacturers of AeroMobil say that the vehicle will be able to take off and landing on small, moderate harsh surfaces. Airborne advertising: Fly yourself: Airborne advertising: Fly yourself:

Airborne advertising: Fly yourself: Airborne advertising: Airborne advertising: Fly yourself: Airborne advertising: Got to spend six hour waiting in Houston for the airplane in front of you to fix the crucial problem with the sticky grocery trolley wheels. Fly yourself: Airborne advertising: Fly yourself: Airborne advertising: Fly yourself: