Airplane becomes a scooter
July 24, 2010 by Alton K. Marsh, Senior Editor, AOPA Pilot
This year’s hot ticket discovery at Oshkosh may be the airplane that converts into a scooter. You can place an order for one. I call it a scooter-plane, but the manufacturer prefers the name Plane Driven PD-1. Follow its progress on Twitter. Or, you can read comments on a blog about it here.
If you are going to EAA AirVenture, go to the new EAA Homebuilders Hangar at 8:15 a.m. Monday morning, July 26, and you’ll see it.
There is an extra 80 hp engine between the wheels, and the wheels are larger for use on the road. Due to center of gravity issues, the wheels need to be slide back to the tail on rails. The wings are then folded and you hop back into the pilot’s seat and drive away, using a steerable nosewheel. Be careful when parking, because one ding means a trip back to an authorized aircraft mechanic.
As this was written, the scooter-plane was at 9,000 feet on its way to Oshkosh for EAA AirVenture 2010. Is this cool or what?
Tags: AirVenture, Oshkosh, PD-1, plane driven, roadable airplane, scooter plane
January 28th, 2011 at 9:29 am
Thats a one of a king concept. I hope someday we will have flying cars or something of the sort. I would definitley get one if they weren’t too expensive.
May 13th, 2013 at 4:51 am
What’s up, I read your new stuff regularly. Your humoristic style is awesome, keep doing what you’re doing!