Case Study: Terrafugia, Inc achieves FAA light-sport designation and production-ready roadable aircraft with SolidWorks

Terrafugia’s car/airplane hybrid soars on latest FAA ruling

Terrafugia, Inc is developing Transition, a “roadable aircraft” that folds its wings to drive like a subcompact car. The company faced the dual engineering challenge of keeping the vehicle light enough to fly while integrating road-safety features (airbags, a protective cage) and meeting regulatory requirements. Terrafugia used SolidWorks to manage these complex design tradeoffs.

Using SolidWorks, Terrafugia optimized structures and systems to balance weight, safety and foldable-wing functionality, helping secure FAA designation of the Transition as a light sport aircraft (allowing sport-pilot operation) and clearing the path toward commercial production. The design was reportedly about 110 pounds over an ideal weight target but close enough for approval, and Terrafugia already has 70 orders—demonstrating measurable market validation of the SolidWorks-enabled solution.

Terrafugia, Inc

Gregor Cadman

Engineer