DARPA's Transformer Project Under Development

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Where do I sign up for the civilian version of one of these? As long as I can afford the payments, I totally want to get my hands on a Transformer, once whoever DARPA gets the contracts to manages to make them.

The Transformer is described as a “flying Humvee”, in which it’s a normal Humvee, until it sprouts wings and a helicopter rotor. Then it can fly.

It’s designed to do things like getting soldiers across minefields without incident, or flying a Humvee out of the blast radius of a detected IED, or even do things like reconnaissance or strike-and-raid operations. But DARPA has some pretty big demands for this craft: it wants the craft to carry four people, be capable of vertical takeoff and landing, and have a maximum range of at least 250 nautical miles, with both driving and flying components.

All I can think is, man, would that ever get me to the store in rapid fashion or what? And think about how great it’d be to drive across inner-city neighborhoods in that! You accidentally find yourself in, say, Cabrini Green, you just fire up the rotors and go right over the top of it until you find the highway.

Sadly, this is all still under design, so we won’t be hopping over long trains at crossings any time soon.