Another US business going west

[Jim Heffelfinger]

Another US aviation business gone west - literally
Boston based Terrafugia has been has been bought up by Chinese car maker.
https://qz.com/1128857/chinese-company-geely-is-buying-up-london-taxis-luxury-sports-vehicles-and-flying-cars/?utm_source=qzfb

[Frank Giger]

There's one born every minute, and some are Chinese.

[Floatsflyer]

Jim, this was actually announced last June and I started a thread about it on June 28. Don't know why it's in the news again.

Frank, the Chinese company that bought it-Geely- is no sucker. It's a huge corporate entity that owns major brands like Volvo and Lotus. Terrafugia is damn lucky. Instead of filing Chapter 11 at sometime in the very near future, they got bought out. Damn lucky bastards. Now they can pay their parents back all that tuition money they wasted sending them to MIT.

Now Uber can stand out as the next morons touting flying cars. They say they'll have fleets of them to air taxi/ride share you around by 2021. WTF are these guys ingesting? If you own Uber shares, I say sell them NOW before your stock certificates become wallpaper.

[BoKu]

Another US aviation business gone west - literally ...

I'm pretty sure nobody here will miss them. Flying cars and roadable airplanes are equally useless. An RV-6 plus $5,000 of Uber comes in at between 1/5 and 1/10 the price of their um, aircraft? And handles about ten times better.

The various electric multicopters like Uber and zee.aero is working on, well, those are worth watching. They're near the cusp of practicality for metro edge transport, and I wouldn't bet too strongly against that sector.

--Bob K.

[Frank Giger]

Floats, we both know that Terrifugia is a money pit without a marketable product on the other end.

The only way it makes any sense to buy that company is 1) a tax write off, or 2) if they have some patents to go with them that are useful.

[Kyle Boatright]

There's one born every minute, and some are Chinese.

I typed (and never posted) almost the exact same words last night. This is/was a great example of a project which churned through a lot of OPM with nothing viable to show for it.

[Floatsflyer]

Floats, we both know that Terrifugia is a money pit without a marketable product on the other end.

The only way it makes any sense to buy that company is 1) a tax write off, or 2) if they have some patents to go with them that are useful.

At the time of the acquisition last June, Geely stated they were buying the technology to help them pursue the further development of flying cars and driverless cars which they thought would be viable in the next 25 years.

[Frank Giger]

That would make a lot more sense than to buy the company and keep pouring money into it as it stands.

At a minimum they will have a helluva boost to their PR department. Those flying car guys can really sell the idea to investors.

[Floatsflyer]

Those flying car guys can really sell the idea to investors.

FWIW:

I have a theory for why the flying car won't just go away and die a dignified death.

The deep pocketed investors for all these different ideas and concepts over the last 50+years grew up in the 60's fascinated by the Jetsons and the possibility of turning a fantasy cartoon series into reality. They refuse to let go of the dream. They become eager participants when the pitches are made by twenty somethings armed with a conceptual computer image and an aeronautical degree.

If these fanciful investors can be discouraged, then and only then can we put a stop to this flying car hyperbole and nonsense. No more big bucks, no more Buck Rogers.

[DaleB]

Why stop it? They're not spending YOUR money. It might generate a little more interest in flying, it gives magazine editors something to do, and it keeps cash moving through the economy. Nobody gets hurt, little or no tax money gets spent, I'm not seeing the big problem here.

[crusty old aviator]

Hey, at least Terrafugia had a flying prototype and reasonable performance goals. Remember Moeller's Skycar? It was supposed to fly at 300+mph, burning 1 gph, with ducted fans. I asked him how he was going to overcome the drag of the ducts above 130 mph, and he had no answer. He never got his "car" off the crane, but he sure spent a LOT of OPM pursuing his "dream."

[Floatsflyer]

Hey, at least Terrafugia had a flying prototype and reasonable performance goals.

That's not a business that's either scaleable or legitimate. If that was the only objective, then they should not have been taking deposits for a product that was never going to go into production and be delivered to those customers. They join a long list of aviation charlatans.

[Bill Berson]

Hey, at least Terrafugia had a flying prototype and reasonable performance goals. Remember Moeller's Skycar? It was supposed to fly at 300+mph, burning 1 gph, with ducted fans. I asked him how he was going to overcome the drag of the ducts above 130 mph, and he had no answer. He never got his "car" off the crane, but he sure spent a LOT of OPM pursuing his "dream."

They have a Moller VTOL version for investors also.
https://www.terrafugia.com/about-terrafugia/