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Transformer takes to the skies

CHITTY Chitty Bang Bang fans were yesterday given reason to get excited after the US Government gave the go-ahead for the production of a flying car.

The Terrafugia Transition is a light aircraft that can convert into a road-legal automobile.

It is to go into production after being given a special weight exemption by the US Federal Air Authority.

The Transition was designed as a “light sport” aircraft, the smallest kind of private aeroplane under FAA classification, with a maximum weight of 1,320lb.

However the manufacturers found it impossible to fit the safety features - airbags, crumple zones and roll cage, for instance - that are required for road vehicles into that weight.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .